Delhi

Police deploy displaced vendors to manage traffic at Ashram

SR

A group of around 25 people including those selling tea and paan beneath the Ashram flyover, shut since Sunday for the last leg of construction work to link it with DND Flyway, was deployed to manage vehicular traffic as men and machines got to work. Vehicles were stuck at traffic signals near the Ashram flyover for interminable minutes as dust from construction work blotted out the sun. The team that helped the traffic police manage the vehicular flow had a hard time during office hours. "Wait time at traffic signals ranged from three to five minutes at noon. The queues were longer in the morning as office goers struggled to cross the around 1.2-kilometre stretch," said Jitendar Nagar, who stood upright wearing a neon jacket near the Ashram metro station. "I have been shouting at the top of my lungs but some people won't listen. A few would even block the left turn elongating the queue of vehicles," said the 25-year-old from Greater Noida as he signalled a motorcyclist to stop behind the zebra crossing. Around 100 metres away, towards the DND Flyway, 33-year-old Arun Kumar Roy, with a handkerchief covering his face, directed pedestrians towards a subway. Roy owned a tea stall beneath the flyover. With the construction work displacing him and other vendors, they have been absorbed into the team managing vehicular flow at traffic signals and U-turns.