Nothing posh about the massive jams of South Delhi

Press Enclave Marg connecting Sheikh Sarai at Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg with Sri Aurobindo Marg in South Delhi, has become a traffic nightmare. Flanked by Saket district courts, three shopping malls and two private hospitals besides Khirki and Hauz Rani villages, the nearly four km-long road tests the patience of all be it motorists, two-wheeler drivers or DTC buses.

 The situation takes a turn for the worse during festival season as it happened on Wednesday late evening when long queues were witnessed at about 8.30 pm. Police had to regulate the traffic by manually operating the traffic signals in order to ensure smooth flow.

Similar scenes are seen from December 25 to 31 each year, when huge crowds throng the shopping malls and extra traffic deployment tries to manage the traffic.

The jams on many days throughout the year are so bad that motorists wishing to join traffic from colonies like Press Enclave and two more adjoining residential complexes are not able to do so as it happened on Wednesday evening. Adding to the mess, the  traffic junction at Malviya Nagar metro station has become a huge bottleneck. Erratic parking by auto-rickshaws on both sides of the station compounds the problem. Despite several drives by the police, no workable solution has emerged.

Traffic snarls on Press Enclave Marg lead to spillovers into the connecting roads with Saket, the area is dotted with residential colonies. Given the sheer volume of traffic, these roads are choked even during the so-called non-peak hours.

A survey of the Press Enclave Marg indicates that the road sees a very high volume of peak-hour traffic, mainly due to unauthorised parking and encroachments. Peak-hour traffic on Press Enclave Marg is around 9,000 passenger car units (PCUs) in the morning and 10,000 PCUs in the evening, officials said.

The Public Works Department (PWD) recently wrote to the traffic police and transport department and sought suggestions to decongest the perennially clogged Press Enclave Marg.

Some solutions being considered include shifting the central verge at the Mandir Marg intersection in order to clear space for cars, and making the entire stretch signal-free, sources said.

One of the options proposed by PWD is to shift the central verge at the Mandir Marg intersection to allow more carriageway space for movement of vehicles.

Another proposed solution includes removing all three traffic lights on the entire road to make it a signal-free stretch. The three traffic lights are at the intersection of Pramod Mahajan Marg, Mandir Marg and Shaheed Pankaj Bal Marg. However, the move requires approval from the traffic police and senior department officials.

After the G20 Summit, the Delhi government in September last year decided to redesign and improve all major stretches across the city, starting with the Press Enclave Marg. Unlike other stretches, the traffic volume is high even during weekends due to the presence of malls, sources said.