The congested Vikas Marg, considered the lifeline of East Delhi, is to be declared a no tolerance zone for traffic violations and encroachments, as the Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) of East Delhi has decided to remove all encroachments and illegal parking from there.
This was decided at a high-level meeting of the East Delhi district task force. A special drive will be launched from Monday to free up to 50 metres of all footpaths and service lanes from encroachments and illegal parking.Officials say that it has also been decided to clear the area in and around Madhuban Chowk on Vikas Marg as the encroachments cause serious bottlenecks and traffic snarls on the route.
Henceforth, vehicles will not be allowed to park/halt for a distance of 50 metres around Madhuban Chowk intersection on Vikas Marg and Patparganj Road. The PWD will make a U-turn on Patparganj Road so that vehicles do not pick up passengers on the traffic signal of Madhuban Chowk. Similarly Gramin Sewa and other auto rickshaws will not be allowed to pick passengers up on traffic lights, as that is one of the reasons for slow traffic movement on the stretch.
The worst-affected part of Vikas Marg is the 2.7-km stretch between the main laxmi Nagar intersection and Karkari More. This stretch remains perennially congested with slow moving traffic even during non-peak hours. With a traffic volume of nearly 90,000 vehicles every day, it is a motorists’ nightmare. Built at a time when trans-Yamuna was not really a preferred address for Delhiites, the growing population and congestion over the years in the areas surrounding it has resulted in the road bursting at the seams.
Also, over the years, residential buildings on this stretch have been turned into rows of shops and showrooms. The biggest effect of this commercialisation is that scores of vehicles are parked not only in the narrow service lanes next to the shops but also on the main road.
The traffic intersections and many internal roads that merge with this stretch also create bottlenecks. There are five major intersections from laxmi Nagar to Karkari More, each with more than two minutes of waiting time.
The volume of traffic from other roads that meets the oncoming traffic on Vikas Marg is also high. lack of road discipline is another major problem as vehicles coming from internal roads cross the stop line and almost come right up to the middle of the main road, waiting for the traffic signal to turn green. As a result, the main traffic flow gets disrupted with vehicles trying to drive around them.
Gramin Sewa vehicles, a rather recent arrival on the roads, are also becoming a major problem thanks to their unruly ways. These vehicles ply on two major routes — from North-East Delhi to Preet Vihar and from Jheel, Shahdara to laxmi Nagar District Centre on Patparganj Road.
These vehicles pick and drop passengers near the busy Preet Vihar Metro Station, taking up half the road at this point and changing lanes at will.They create an even bigger bottleneck at Patparganj Road and Vikas Marg intersection, where they simply wait for passengers right on the road.
The Delhi Government’s PWD has assured that it will repair the entire stretch in such a way that pedestrians will have unhindered access and vehicles will not be parked on it. Officials say during an inspection, it was found that most of the traffic snarls on the stretch were due to illegal parking and encroachments on Vikas Marg and Madhuban Chowk.
According to officials, East Delhi Municipal Corporation has been directed to remove encroachments and maintain cleanliness and sanitation.