Highway hell: 20-km jam on Delhi-Kolkata route, vehicles stuck for 3 days

Thousands of commuters and truck drivers remain stranded for the third straight day on National Highway 19, as a 15 to 20-kilometre-long traffic jam continues to bring traffic to a standstill near Sasaram and Rohtas in Bihar.

"The jam has been there since yesterday morning, around 8 am. I've barely moved 5 kilometres. I've been stuck here in Sasaram itself since then. There is no food, we are surviving on little snacks available on the roadside," Duban Kumar, a truck driver who was on his way to Delhi from Odisha, said.

Another truck driver, Sanjay Das, who was coming from Kolkata, said that he has covered only 20 kilometres since he started his journey 24 hours ago.

The highway connects Kolkata and Delhi, and therefore is a primary route for trade transportation. However, despite the strategic importance of the highway, there has been no effective intervention by local authorities to address the growing crisis.

"No authorities have visited us yet. We have barely been able to move. We are surviving on tea and biscuits," Sanjay Das said.

The bottleneck has formed due to ongoing road widening work being carried out by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) near Shivsagar.

Torrential rains that hit the region three days ago have further complicated the situation by hampering construction activities and narrowing the road space. As a result, vehicles are now being forced to navigate through a temporary diversion, leading to slow movement and heavy congestion.

"This jam is only on one side, from Aurangabad to Varanasi, but it's affecting hundreds of trucks and passenger vehicles. The trucks have barely moved in hours," said a stranded truck driver. "There's no help, no arrangement for food or water. We are just stuck here."

National Highway 19, stretching from Agra in Uttar Pradesh to Dankuni in West Bengal, runs through three major states – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. It serves major cities like Varanasi and crosses the Ganges River multiple times.

The highway forms a major segment of the historic Grand Trunk Road, one of Asia's oldest and longest trade routes. It is also part of the international Asian Highway Network (AH1) and the Golden Quadrilateral, making it a crucial artery for both domestic and cross-border commerce and travel.