With the arrival of monsoon, traffic woes have also come back to haunt Delhiites. While long tailbacks were witnessed across Delhi wherever waterlogging was reported, Delhiites already fear what may lie in the near future with more rainfall expected in the coming weeks.
“With some rainfall experienced during the past week, my travel time to and from work has already increased. Based on past experience, I fear what may happen in next few weeks when monsoon is in full swing as travel time often doubles when it rains heavily,” said Deepak Malhotra, who travels from Pitampura to Gurgaon.
Every year during the monsoon, long traffic snarls are witnessed across the city due to reasons varying from waterlogging, failure of traffic signals, potholes on roads, uprooted trees, and so on. While the authorities claim that they have done everything to control waterlogging, but nothing seems to have changed. In the end, it is commuters - late for work, late for appointments, late for school - who suffer the most with travel time significantly increasing.
like every year, Delhi Traffic Police has identified major waterlogging prone areas in the city and has informed about the same to the various road owning agencies.
Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sandeep Goel said, “We have identified 167 points where waterlogging was noticed during the last year and have informed about the same to the respective civic agencies to take the remedial measures for the coming season.”
Some of these areas include Saket Metro Station, under Defence Colony flyover, Tilak Bridge, under laxmi Nagar Metro Station on Vikas Marg, Dhaula Kuna to AIIMS, Green Park to AIIMS, Tilak Marg to Sikandra Road, AIIMS flyover to INA market, Adhchini t-point, Andheria Morh, Bhairon Road-Mathura Road t-point, DND flyover towards Maharani Bagh, Moolchand underpass, Press Enclave Road, Mehrauli-Badarpur road (IGNOU cut) etc.
However, all the three MCDs have claimed that none of these areas, barring two in north MCD, fall under their jurisdiction.
“Apart from the already identified areas, we update the list whenever it rains and inform the civic agencies from time to time. We tell them about the areas where waterlogging is noticed on a particular day’s rain and how many of those areas are already in the list and how many are new ones,” Goel added.
According to traffic officials, the number of traffic complaints related to civic issues sees a significant spike during the monsoon season. There are problems like potholes, uprooting of trees, and waterlogging, which lead to slowdown of traffic.
To add to the chaos, failure of traffic signals also becomes more common during this time. While many of these signals develop faults due to the rains, power supply issues also result in non-functioning traffic lights as the proposal to install inverters or solar panels has been stuck for a while. As per estimates, almost 30 to 40 per cent of the 864 signalised intersections face problems during the monsoons due to cables getting damaged by rainwater.
However, Special Commissioner (Traffic) Sandeep Goel states that the traffic police takes various measures to ensure smooth flow of traffic despite all the issues related to rains.
“Whenever there is a possibility of rains, we ensure that traffic personnel are out on the roads in more and more numbers. Due to rains, there is a possibility of traffic signal failure, power cut, as well as unforeseen waterlogging which significantly reduces the workable width of the road leading to slowing down of traffic. Also two-wheeler riders tend to stop under the flyovers causing obstruction to the flow traffic,” Goel said.
“For this, we deploy as many traffic policemen as possible to ensure that vehicles keep moving quickly on the water-logged roads, not too many two-wheelers stop under the flyovers and ensure smooth flow of the traffic on intersections where traffic signals develop faults. Our presence, not allowing traffic situation to get worse, is the key,” he added.
Experts feel that for a permanent solution of the traffic problem during the monsoon season, the drainage capacity needs to be increased and water pumps need to be installed in low-lying areas to remove waterlogging. Also, in long the term, the slope of the roads needs to be corrected as well.