New Delhi, Aug. 11 -- With 30-minute commutes taking over an hour-and-half, residents in the Capital crawled through serpentine jams in the city caused by a combination of weekday rush, waterlogging after heavy rains, and thousands of pilgrims blocking the streets from on top of large vehicles or on foot in the final days of the Kanwar Yatra. Traffic police personnel, residents complained, were largely absent and there was little to no management on the ground.

Severe congestion was witnessed in many parts of south, east, northeast, and west Delhi. The worst-hit stretches were around the Delhi-Noida border in Kalindi Kunj, and the Delhi-Ghazipur borders in Ghazipur, Anand Vihar, and Dilshad Garden through which tens of thousands of Kanwa...