Sirhaul toll, Old Delhi-Gurgaon road saw most jams in February

GURUGRAM:

Sirhaul

, the Delhi-Gurugram border on NH-8, is the most congested area in the city, with

traffic

jams reported on 23 days in the month of February. This is the very same place which topped in traffic congestion in January too, with snarls reported on 21 days.

Old Delhi-Gurugram

road

comes a close second, with traffic jams reported on 22 days. In fact, these are among 15 spots in the district that witness the maximum number of snarls, according to data compiled by the Gurugram traffic police after a month-long inspection. The traffic police has been keeping a real-time track of snarls across the district from January 1 this year. Officials say the traffic tower in Sushant Lok Phase-1 provides live TV updates of the traffic situation, and cops use the data to decide on personnel deployment and decongest congestion-prone points.

What seems to be the primary cause of this chaos at Sirhaul is South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC)

toll

collection and cabbies trying to slip past it. Despite assigned lanes and diversions for commercial vehicles, many cab drivers try to speed away that compels toll collectors to stop them in the middle of the road, choking traffic.

SDMC had in 2017 outsourced toll collection to MEP Infrastructure. And MCEPL, the concessionaire for the Delhi-Gurugram expressway, blames MEP Infrastructure toll collectors for the mess at the border. “The collectors stand on all lanes of the expressway to stop commercial vehicles that try to escape through the lanes for private vehicle without paying toll,” said T Raju, MCEPL official. However, Jay Kadam, deputy general manager of MEP Infrastructure, refuted the allegations.

Old Delhi-Gurugram road also remains one of the biggest bottlenecks for commuters, with multiple intersections and several corporate houses and industries located along it. Potholes, too many autos plying without following traffic rules, and pedestrians and cyclists crossing the road at the intersections only add to traffic woes of commuters. Vatika Chowk also witnessed jams for 17 days in February, while Kherki Dhaula and Daultabad came a close fourth with 16 days of snarls. The traffic police has attributed the traffic jams to multiple factors. These include accidents, VIP visits, bad road, and violations such as lane-jumping and wrong-side driving, and engineering flaws in road design. Himanshu Garg, DCP (traffic), said: “We will be undertaking a point-to-point intervention. This data helps us fine tune our traffic deployment and decongest areas in a targeted manner.”


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