Overview
- Officials say 631,000 vehicles reached Shimla in the past 24 days, with roughly 70,000 arriving in the most recent 72-hour period.
- The sudden influx has produced frequent traffic jams and intensified Shimla’s chronic parking shortages, disrupting travel around the hill city.
- Authorities have split the city into five traffic zones, assigned a gazetted officer to each zone, enlisted volunteers, and opened alternative routes to manage flows.
- Vehicles bound for Upper Shimla are being routed via the Shoghi–Mehli road to reduce central congestion, but full extra police deployment is scheduled only after May 31 because of ongoing panchayat polls.
- Most arrivals came via the Chandigarh–Kalka approach and officials expect numbers to rise further into June, which will prolong delays for residents and tourists and test local road capacity.