Darjeeling’s traffic nightmare returns amid peak tourist rush

Amitava Banerjee, MP, May 20, 2026, Darjeeling: Ask any Darjeeling resident what is synonymous with peak tourist season and the spontaneous answer will be “endless traffic jams.” With the ongoing tourist rush, Darjeeling is once again in the grip of serpentine traffic congestion. 

All the roads in Darjeeling town and the surrounding areas are chock-a-block with traffic. Patients, students, office-goers, daily commuters as well as tourists flocking the hill town are facing immense hardships owing to this. 

“I take an hour to reach school by car on normal days. Now the same journey is taking more than three hours, that too it’s not certain. We are missing classes owing to this. There seems to be no respite at hand,” stated Anuradha Sharma, a teacher. 

The worst affected are the stretches from Ghoom to Darjeeling, a distance of 8 km taking more than 3 to 4 hours, and the stretch from Chowk Bazar to Lebong also (around 6 km). 

“I started from Siliguri at 6:30 am and reached Batasia Loop at 9:00 am on Monday by shared taxi. I was stuck at Batasia till 11 am. When there was no movement at all, I walked the 4 km to town, as I had to reach office,” stated Chiranjeet Bose, a resident. Even the roads in town witnessed endless traffic jams throughout the day. 

“Even in my wildest dream, I had never expected that there would be a jam on Chowrasta, the stretch from Gorkha Rangamancha to Governor’s House. I witnessed that on Monday,” stated Dawa Sherpa, a morning walker. 

Social media is full of posts by local residents of the daily ordeals they have to face every day owing to the endless traffic jams. They have pulled up the local administration, State and Central Government for having failed miserably to resolve the issue. Darjeeling roads can handle up to 6,000 vehicles a day. However, this number shoots up to around 20,000 in a day during peak season. 

The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration in consultation with the PWD has been mulling alternate routes to the town since 2003 but they are yet to see the light of day. Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front leader Bharat Tamang criticised hill political leaders for engaging in political mudslinging instead of addressing the worsening traffic crisis. 

“Daily traffic jams are causing grave inconvenience to local residents as well as tourists. There is no proper planning nor a long-term solution to the problem.”

Courtesy & source- Millennium Post