Central Delhi is under protest curbs for a second day, after Saturday's barricades let only government ID holders through and mobile data was cut inside the zone1. In the Gulf, Riyadh's airport was hit for the third time this week and shut while the damage was assessed2. Down south, the threat to watch is Karnataka: cane farmers meet the food minister in Delhi tomorrow, and say they'll block highways across the state from Tuesday if the talks fail3.
Green the sale season as usual, which can still be busy
Amber something beyond the season is slowing freight
Red something is stopping freight across a state or a route
North
Green
Central Delhi's protest curbs are back for a second day, with diversions from 6 am around Connaught Place, Mandi House, Patel Chowk and Lutyens' Delhi5. The city as a whole ran just a point over its usual traffic on Saturday6, so the strain sits in the centre's last mile, not at the hubs on the edge of town.
West
Green
DP World opened the second phase of its Nhava Sheva Business Park on Wednesday: 42 more acres and about a million square feet of warehousing beside JNPA7. That's more room to hold boxes off the quay, at a port running record months.
South
Green
Karnataka's cane farmers meet the food minister at Krishi Bhavan tomorrow, and say an indefinite blockade of national highways at every district headquarters starts on Tuesday if the talks fail3. In Chennai, the Prime Minister opens a paved storage yard and four export-import godowns at the port today, and a new coal berth at Kamarajar8.
East
Green
Kolkata's puja curbs start on Tuesday: goods vehicles held off the roads for set hours till the 19th, port trucks allowed only between noon and 4 pm, then immersion bans from the 20th9. That's the usual Puja strain, and Kolkata's traffic actually eased on Mahalaya with the trucks off the road.
Northeast
Amber
The trucks held at the Bengal border are still the region's problem. Sikkim's one road stays shut at night till Thursday.
Central
Green
The region's one problem is the farmers' blockade on NH-30 in Kabirdham, and it's one district so far. If they go indefinite, as they threaten, the Raipur–Jabalpur road is the one to get impacted.
Network Insights
1Barricades first, then a blackout
The last mile in protest week
Medium confidence
Inside the protest zone, mobile data was cut from 10 pm on Friday through Saturday evening, the widest curb in Delhi since the 2019 citizenship protests, and The Hindu reports it hit gig workers who needed data to take orders and navigate deliveries10. So how many deliveries actually missed? Nobody has counted, and the platforms haven't said. Is it a one-off? The road curbs are back today, and the organisers say they'll march every day until the Chief Election Commissioner is removed5.
So a protest zone can impact last mile deliveries, quick commerce and same-day promises into city centres with protests on the calendar.
2Now the Gulf's airports are in range too
India to Saudi Arabia, by sea and air
Medium confidence
Houthi missiles hit Riyadh's King Khalid airport on Saturday for the third time this week, killing 12 and wounding 309, and operations were suspended while the damage was assessed; the Houthis say any aircraft in Saudi airspace outside Mecca and Medina is a target2. Indian airlines had already cancelled their Riyadh flights, IndiGo through Friday and Air India, Air India Express and Akasa through Saturday11. At sea, Iran's Guards say a tanker hit a mine in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, after 13 incidents involving tankers around the strait between 28th September and 5th October, and ships there have been under attack since February12. So what was the fallback for Gulf cargo that couldn't wait for a slow, expensive ship? Air. That's actually the route that broke this week.
Exports of perishables, medicines and spare parts into Saudi Arabia are at risk, where a missed flight has no quick substitute.
3A planning office that reads the e-way bills
Transport planning, all modes
High confidence
The Cabinet approved an Integrated Transport and Logistics Authority on 6th October, and on Saturday the government set out what it will do: a national transport master plan looking ten years or more ahead, across roads, rail, ports, airports, waterways and city transport, and a technical check on every central project of ₹500 crore or more, before and after it's built13. The bit that actually interests me is the data. It's to build one repository joining e-way bills, FASTag, Vahan registrations, GPS feeds and city traffic systems, to map where freight starts and ends13. Why does that matter? Because today those sources sit with different agencies, and this page is pieced together from the scraps that reach public view. Will the freight maps be public? I don't know yet.
The next corridors, terminals and bypasses will be picked by a body that can see where freight actually goes, and anyone siting hubs and warehouses for the next ten years would want to see those maps too.
The lanes I'm watching
NH-27 at SrirampurAmber
The Northeast's road out, at the Bengal border
Hundreds of outbound trucks with coal and petroleum coke held at Srirampur and Buxirhat for days, as of Friday's report; Bengal Police cite papers, transporters say they carry e-way bills and invoices14.
NH-30 Raipur–JabalpurAmber
Chhattisgarh to Madhya Pradesh
Kabirdham's farmers had NH-30 and the roads to Raipur, Bilaspur and Rajnandgaon blocked for about 20 hours by Friday morning, over 23 demands, and threaten to go indefinite15. Amber till Monday unless they do.
NH-10 Siliguri–GangtokAmber
Sikkim's one and only trunk road
Shut to all vehicles 9 pm to 6 am on the 52 km Sevoke–Rangpo stretch till Thursday, and again 26th October–5th November16.
Measured this morning
City roads against usual, daily, 4–10 Oct6amber = 10+ over
Saturday was quieter than Friday almost everywhere. Kolkata fell to 8 points over usual from 18 on its Mahalaya goods-vehicle ban, Delhi to 1 from 12 despite the protest curbs, and Bengaluru and Hyderabad ran below usual.
Kolkata+8
Mumbai+7
Ahmedabad+6
Kochi+4
Chennai+3
Pune+1
Delhi+1
Jaipur+0
Hyderabad-4
Bengaluru-7
Sources
Built from public sources only. The ratings are my judgement on the likelihood of on-time delivery or cost-impact, not measured service levels or actual cost estimates. Confidence is High when the facts are dated and primary or measured, Medium when they rest on a proxy or a forecast. If I am wrong, we'll find out in the subsequent weeks. Map boundaries: DataMeet, CC BY 4.0.