Broken roads, endless jams: Why officer-goers leave home early in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad: For 31-year-old Kaushambi resident Shailesh Kumar Yadav, reaching office in Sector 62, Noida, had been a test of his patience. The commute felt like a mobile game. He had to dodge potholes, open pits dug up for the ongoing CM GRID projects, squeeze through everlasting snarls and manage to reach the office on time. He started to leave home early but ended up getting late. So last month, the product manager finally requested that his office shift him to night duty.

Ongoing construction and dug-up roads across Indirapuram, Vaishali and Kaushambi have turned the morning commute into an ordeal for office-goers, who say they now leave home at least 30 minutes earlier than usual to reach work on time. Dust, broken stretches and peak-hour gridlock have made daily travel exhausting. Working women bear a disproportionate burden, contending with long delays, safety concerns and the added pressure of managing household responsibilities alongside professional commitments. Residents say authorities have offered no timeline for when the construction will be completed.

Yadav has two children — a 9-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter — whom he drops off at school every day. “I thought I would be able to juggle everything, until the authorities decided to dig up the roads for infra work every 2 metres. I was unable to manage all of it anymore and asked my superiors to change my shift from 11pm to 7am,” he said.

Due to the civic works, the carriageway has been narrowed at places and during peak hours, major gridlocks are noticed in sectors 3, 4 and 7 of Vaishali, the stretch connecting Vaishali and Kaushambi, and Indirapuram’s Ahimsa Khand, Niti Khand and Gyan Khand. Commuters claimed that it takes nearly 15-20 minutes for each snarl to clear up.

Unlike Yadav, Randheer Thakur begins his journey from Delhi’s Mehrauli to Indirapuram almost half an hour early to avoid congestion on the internal roads leading to his store.

“I come from Delhi. Since I am on a bike, I manage to not get into the congested areas, but I always get stuck,” he said. “Sometimes, the roads that were not blocked the day before become off-limits because a new set of revamps begins. Then I have to recalibrate and figure out a new route. So, I feel it is always better to set off at least 30 minutes early.”

However, the problem for working mothers is different. They not only have to start early at home, but a few of them are also struggling with their sleep schedules. A resident of Shipra Vista in Indirapuram, Priya Bisht (35) said, “I travel to Barakhamba Road for work and since they started digging the road, I too began waking up an hour earlier to cook for my kids.” Bisht said all her friends and neighbours have started leaving earlier than usual. “Yet, it feels like we are trapped in the same endless traffic,” she said in frustration.

For people who work at Gurgaon-based companies, the problem is worse. They have to travel for at least 2 hours to reach the office.

A resident of Max City, Vaishali, Akhil K, who works at PWC in Gurgaon, said, “I am a father of two young kids. My wife is a working professional herself. It is so frustrating to see these dug-up sites right outside my society for months and I have never seen any men at work at these sites.”

He said that his entire professional and personal life has been altered by the ongoing construction. “I just want these diggings to be over as soon as possible,” he said. “Commute to work should not be agonising anymore.”