Numerous diversions at the busy ITO Crossing have created a traffic nightmare in the area. Imposed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in April 2012, when it began working on the ITO Metro Station, the diversions were to stay for two years only, but with deadlines being pushed incessantly, a relief anytime soon would be a tall claim to make.
While a sizeable part of Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg has been blocked ever since work on the ITO station began, the DMRC is chalking out its final diversion for the project. People working in the area, who are already fed up with the
diversions and the lack of parking space due to the ongoing work, will be in for even more trying times while trying to park their vehicles as the DMRC is planning to block a part of the service lane along Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.
However, after facing the ire of commuters, the DMRC has finally woken up to the problems being faced by the public and has assured that all restrictions would be lifted by December.
However, till that happens, commuters will have to face the brunt of the delay in the work for nearly two more months until the full carriageway is opened to the public. Office-goers in the crowded Press area will be the worst hit under the new plan as parking issues are expected to worsen.
“The work area in front of Dolls Museum will be extended as we have to connect the entry point there with the concourse of the station by creating a subway. Just a narrow stretch of the lane will be kept open for commuters,” said a senior DMRC official.
Figures with the Traffic Police suggest that over 1,500 vehicles are parked on the service lane that runs parallel to Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg. Parking along the service lane and on Kotla Marg, which otherwise had a few hundred vehicles parked at any given time, was also done away with as traffic was routed through these roads. Vehicles were allowed to park on the carriageway itself.
The new traffic plan of the Delhi Metro will also straighten the existing curve on the carriageway leading to the ITO Intersection, but will, however, block a part of the service lane along Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.
“By the end of this month, we will straighten the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg carriageway. The existing barricade at the Post Office shall remain, but the curve on the open carriageway will be straightened by opening the barricade on the left,” the DMRC official said.
Records with the Traffic Police suggest that the Ram Charan Agarwal Chowk (ITO Intersection) is used by no less than four to five lakh commuters on a daily basis. Besides, over a lakh vehicles cross over the ITO stretch everyday.
The changed traffic plan by the DMRC, when first imposed in April 2012, had sent traffic cops in a tizzy with officials being unable to manage the mammoth vehicular movement.
The ITO Metro Station has already seen over three deadline misses by the DMRC, (scheduled for opening in July this year, the commissioning of the ITO station was deferred to December and now it has been pushed back to February 2015, albeit unofficially), the brunt of which the public is facing in terms of total traffic chaos and endless hurdles for parking as well as for pedestrians. It’s high time that even the DMRC was made accountable to some higher authority for various lapses on its part.