New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS): Commuters had a harrowing time on the Delhi-Gurugram highway on the festival of Maha Shivratri on Friday, as hundreds of people were stranded in traffic for several hours due to a huge crowd of devotees at the Lord Shiva statue in south Delhi's Mahipalpur area.

The National Highway 8 that connects the national capital with Haryana's Gurugram was jampacked with heavy traffic since morning.

There was a long queue of devotees outside the venue following which the traffic on the route was thrown out of gear.

Vehicles were running bumper to bumper and a long line of cars was visible for several kilometers on both sides of the highway.

The Delhi Traffic Police was updating commuters about the heavy traffic on the strech from its official Twitter account.

The police in a series of tweets said, "On the route from Dhaula Kuan to Gurugram, there is heavy traffic near the Lord Shiva idol."

In other tweet, the traffic police said that the service road leading from Rangpuri Chowk to Lord Shiva temple has been closed due to the huge crowd.

The traffic police also alerted the commuters going towards the Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal Number 3, and said, "Traffic is affected due to Maha Shivratri near Shiv temple from Terminal 3 towards Mahipalpur."

The traffic police urged the people to avoid the route.

Even the Mehrauli-Gurugram was choked with vehicles. The traffic police in its alert said that the due to Maha Shivratri at CDR-Chowk and Y-block Mehrauli, there is a huge crowd of devotees which has affected traffic.