Chirag Delhi gears up for school rush hours

Commuters in South Delhi, especially students and parents of children headed to the several schools around Chirag Delhi and Hauz Khas, are in for a traffic nightmare on Monday when the new academic session begins.

School commute and work week traffic will inevitably add to the vehicular load on the partially closed Chirag Delhi flyover, where repair works that began on March 12 has led to bumper-to-bumper jams and cascading delays in several neighbourhoods and arterial routes in the area.

Last week, on Friday, a part of IIT Delhi to Nehru Place carriageway on the Chirag Delhi flyover was shut as part of the 50-day project, that first began with a closure of the other carriageway.

The Delhi Traffic Police has kept one lane open for light vehicles at present but those driving from Hauz Khas towards Kalkaji, Nehru Place and Okhla reported delays of up to 25 minutes on Friday, the last weekday.

The situation was slightly better on Sunday, as most offices and schools were shut.

“Schools will be reopening tomorrow for the new session and the traffic situation is going to get much worse (than Sunday). My daughter’s school is in GK and I need to pick her up from school at noon. We don’t know how many more days it will take for the traffic situation to become normal,” said Mahendra Yadav, who works at a hotel in Hauz Khas and commutes to Greater Kailash, where his daughter studies.

Residents in neighbourhoods close by said they feared the impact on their local roads too will worsen.

SD Mitroo, a resident of Panchsheel Enclave C Block, said: “Monday will definitely be much worse since more vehicles will be on the roads. The closure of the flyover has thrown the traffic situation out of gear and during office hours, the situation is further exacerbated. If traffic continues to spill into our colony, the law-and-order situation will be affected. Authorities should carry out the work at night to avoid hassles to residents and commuters.”

On Sunday, even with typically light traffic, a 500m queue starting from Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya on Outer Ring Road till Nehru Place was seen in the evening, with the travel time between Hauz Khas and Nehru Place — a 5-minute drive —taking around 15 minutes.

Deputy commissioner of police (traffic, south) Dhirendra Pratap Singh said, “We will have elaborate traffic police arrangement in place to deal with traffic problems on roads around the Chirag Delhi flyover on Monday. One portion of the carriageway that has been shut for construction work has been kept open for vehicular movement. It will provide some relief.”

S Velmurugan, chief scientist and head, Traffic Engineering and Safety Division, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said, “From the engineering point of view, it seems a sound approach to carry out repair of half joints. PWD must have assessed the condition before taking this step. In terms of traffic movement, the agency must put up signage alerting commuters about diversions well ahead of the flyover.”