6 hour snarl at Kherki Daula toll triggers tailback till Hero Honda Chowk

GURUGRAM: All routes leading towards the Kherki Daula toll plaza were choked for six hours on Tuesday, from 10am till 4pm, causing chaos on the roads that stretched into the city.
Toll plaza concessionaire Millennium City Expressway Private Limited (MCEPL) blamed traffic police for the chaos, while city cops put the onus on MCEPL, saying the massive jams were a result of the concessionaire closing down one road at Narsinghpur.
The choke point was indeed at Narsinghpur, where MCEPL was carrying out maintenance work. MCEPL official Sai Krishna said, “We were filling potholes and carrying out periodic maintenance. For this, we had to close a road at Narsinhpur.” He though denied the jam had anything to do with this. “The jam was caused by traffic police officers, who were carrying out some sort of experiment at Narsinghpur road, and closed the service road because of this,” he said.
According to traffic officials, NHAI through MECPL has been building a service road near the T-point at Narsinghpur leading to Begampur Khatola, due to which they had to closed down the road. “They are laying a reinforced concrete road, but haven’t placed any signage or marshals, nor consulted us to create a diversion. Several heavy vehicles regularly cross this T-point to reach the factories beyond,” said a senior traffic official, referring to the Begampur Khatola cut. “On Tuesday, trucks started taking U-turns at Narsinghpur, which led to delay on the roads, leading to the jam,” he said.
The traffic snarls were so severe that tailbacks went up to Hero Honda Chowk flyover. Thrice during this period, traffic cops had opened the toll gates. Om Pal Singh, employee of toll plaza controller Skylark, said, “The toll was made free at 10.30am-11.05am, 1.30pm-1.50pm and 3.30pm-4pm. Two truck breakdowns and an accident at Narsinghpur added to the chaos.” By afternoon, rumours had spread that systems had broken down at Kherki Daula toll. MCEPL CEO S Raghuraman said, “Our computer systems were working properly. The jams were caused by traffic police diversions.”
Sanjiv Bedi, a resident of Narsinghpur, said for the last three days, the traffic situation at the stretch had been chaotic, but it got worse on Tuesday. “Despite tailbacks extending to Hero Honda Chowk, toll was being collected at the plaza, which made the situation worse,” said Bedi.