Early hours of Monday morning saw huge traffic jams on key city roads across the UAE, as school and college buses dotted the streets on the first day of the new academic year.
The roads around the schools and colleges were crowded as many parents were asked by educational institutions to drop their children on the first day of the academic year.
Many motorists expecting heavy traffic on the roads had started their journey half an earlier – especially those who had to drop their children to schools on the first day and then head to their offices.
Dubai-Sharjah roads saw huge traffic build up as early as 6.30am as life returned back to fast lane after the two-month summer break.
Many motorists tried to evade the routes with heavy traffic by using navigation applications such as Google Maps, Waze and Yango Maps, to reach their desired destinations on time.
Over 1.1 million students returned back to schools on Monday, joining new classes across the emirates. Many of them used school and college buses to commute leading to key roads and smaller arteries roads getting congested from the early hours.
The main road connecting the emirates of Dubai and Sharjah, Al Ittihad Road or E11 were the busiest and saw morning traffic building up much earlier than usual summer holidays.
Normally during summer holidays, traffic usually starts to build up at around 7am on Al Ittihad Road. However, during regular days such as today when schools are open, traffic jams start around 45 minutes earlier.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Road, or E311, which Dubai and Sharjah was jam packed with the traffic. There was a heavy traffic on this stretch of highway from Al Zahia City Centre in the direction of Dubai.
Similar congestion was seen early in the morning on the roads in Abu Dhabi -especially around Zayed City, Al Muntazah and a few other areas.
