Ahmedabad’s Navratri traffic is expected to intensify sharply on the SG Highway, Sardar Patel Ring Road, Sindhu Bhavan Road and the Vaishnodevi Circle approach, with vehicle volumes projected to rise by 35% to 40% during the festival’s nine nights, according to a report by Gujarat Samachar – Ahmedabad.
The report says daily traffic on the SG Highway and Ring Road, normally estimated at 1.20 lakh to 1.30 lakh vehicles, could increase to between 1.75 lakh and 1.85 lakh vehicles during the night-time peak of Navratri. The most congested period is expected to be between 8 pm and 2 am, when vehicles heading to commercial garba venues and clubs will combine with taxis and regular traffic.
The pressure will come as several parts of Ahmedabad’s western road network are already affected by infrastructure work. Flyover construction, drainage-line projects and pre-festival road resurfacing have narrowed road space and created diversions. The report also cites ongoing civil works and metro or bridge projects along the SG Highway, where service roads are blocked and barricading has been placed on parts of the main carriageway.
These restrictions could create bottlenecks on narrow service roads and diverted stretches as large numbers of garba participants arrive at the same time. On Sindhu Bhavan Road and the Bopal-Ambli approach road, incomplete road-repair patches and roadside parking near venues are expected to further reduce usable carriageway space. A three-lane road could effectively be reduced to one lane in some locations because of parking and event-related vehicle movement, the report says.
The expected congestion highlights the operational challenge of managing a large, time-bound travel surge on corridors that are simultaneously carrying routine traffic and accommodating construction activity. The affected routes connect residential areas, commercial venues and major approaches on Ahmedabad’s western side, making the traffic impact broader than the immediate surroundings of individual garba grounds.
The Ahmedabad Police have prepared a large security and traffic deployment for the festival. According to the police commissioner, 14,000 police personnel and 500 senior officers will be deployed across the city, supported by 139 PCR vans. An additional 500 personnel have been assigned to traffic management on the roads.
Women’s safety arrangements will include 49 ‘She Teams’ operating in plain clothes to prevent harassment and respond to complaints. The police will also monitor the city through 4,000 CCTV cameras linked to control-room operations. The deployment is intended to cover both public safety around venues and traffic regulation on the main routes used by festival-goers.
The report does not specify a detailed route-wise traffic diversion plan, parking capacity for individual venues or the timing of construction restrictions. For commuters, the immediate risk is that festival traffic, work-zone bottlenecks and informal roadside parking will converge during the same late-evening window. Police and traffic authorities are expected to manage the affected corridors through the announced personnel deployment, CCTV monitoring and PCR coverage during the nine-day festival period.
