Congestion, water logging at Barapullah flyover, Mathura road, and Pragati Maidan tunnel has only intensified

The multi-crore ambitious projects of Barapullah flyover, Mathura road and Pragati Maidan tunnel, which aimed at solving the traffic woes in the national Capital, and connect satellite cities around Delhi such as Noida, and Ghaziabad has not only failed to take the burden off from the city roads, it has made the situation worse with commuters sitting for hours in the jams on the stretches.

Ironically, the Barapullah Elevated Corridor, which was meant to solve traffic congestion in south Delhi, has now become among the worst stretches for people to cross at peak hours. Hundreds of vehicles are routinely stranded in massive jams that stretch on for many kilometres on the roads leading to and from the flyover.

The flyover is situated between AIIMS Flyover and the Sundial at Sarai Kale Khan over Barapullah Nallah, and is one of the crucial roads linking commuters of Ghaziabad and Noida with South Delhi, and vice versa. Each carriageway of Barapullah Flyover has three lanes.

Several bottlenecks are formed on the flyover leading to vehicles barely crawling in the specific location. Basically, a traffic bottleneck is a localised disruption of vehicular traffic on a street, road, or highway. As opposed to a traffic jam, a bottleneck is a result of a specific physical condition, often the design of the road, badly timed traffic lights, or sharp curves.

According to the Delhi Traffic Police department, as per the current traffic flow pattern, the volume of traffic coming from Ghaziabad through NE-03 (Delhi Meerut Expressway) and Noida coming through DND is very high in the morning.

“The traffic coming from Ghaziabad and Noida ascends the Barapullah Flyover near Sundial. Due to heavy volume of traffic coming through in six lanes and discharging only through three lanes of Barapullah Flyover, a bottleneck is created resulting in congestion on Ring Road near Sundial. Similarly, in the evening peak hours, the traffic coming from AIIMS and Lodhi Road merges near Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti which creates a bottleneck at the said merging point,” Additional Commissioner of Police of Traffic Zone 2 Dinesh Gupta to The Pioneer stated.

He added that letters have been written to the Public Works Department to increase the width of the carriageways to accommodate more vehicles and reduce the traffic woes.

As per the official data accessed exclusively by The Pioneer, a total of 3,252 improper parking e-challans,  7,823 challans, 2,183 tow away challans, and 913 e-rickshaw no entry challans have been issued on the flyover till October 7 this year.

The presence of historical sites also adds to the jams even as traffic remains largely unregulated and commuters left on their own to figure it out. Additionally, people also say that they have seen ambulances stuck raising concerns about safety.

“The traffic movement on Mathura Road in the area of Lajpat Nagar Traffic Circle usually remains normal. However, a number of historical places i.e. Humayun Tomb complex, Sunder Nursery and Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah which daily sees heavy footfall of tourists and visitors, are situated on Mathura Road at Auxiliary Route (R/A) Neela Gumbad (Sabz Burj),” a senior traffic police officer said.

Commuters frequently take to social media to express their frustrations regarding the same, complaining of mismanaged and unregulated traffic bereft of police personnel. “In the past week, we have faced horrible traffic jams in Delhi while coming to Indirapuram. Once we were caught in Pragati Maidan tunnel. Then once on Barapullah road for one hour. Then the day before, on Ashram flyover for an hour,” a commuter said.

According to officials, there are two traffic police personnel deployed on R/A Neela Gumbad to regulate and manage traffic and one private crane is available with the circle which keeps removing the obstructively parked vehicles.

To further exacerbate the situation, the Pragati Maidan area which was redeveloped for easing a chunk of east Delhi traffic and involved building massive road infrastructure in central Delhi to decongest Mathura Road and two key traffic intersections, is regularly choked. Security measures put in place frequently for VIPs visiting Bharat Mandapam, which was constructed for hosting big events like G20, has become a bane for commuters who are stalled in their vehicles for hours, restricting their movement.

Additional CP of traffic zone 2 said, “As far as congestion of traffic near Bharat Mandapam on Mathura road is concerned, it is stated that only during VIP movement, vehicles are stopped as per VIP movement protocol.”

Elaborating on the other pain point in the area during the morning when many office goers are on their way to their workplace, Gupta added that in those hours, traffic is also slow due to checking at entrance gate E of the Supreme Court.