From Gurugram border to Noida, traffic crawls across Capital

A combination of rain, potholes, construction work, and road closures due to the movement of the Prime Minister’s convoy led to a traffic gridlock across the National Capital Region (NCR) for much of Wednesday, especially during peak hours.

The snarls began towards Delhi’s southern border at Gurugram, a day after the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) shut service lanes on NH-48 between the Sirhaul border and Rajokri to construct a tunnel from the highway to IGI Airport.

The lane closures meant NH-48 recorded kilometres-long traffic jams, with vehicular movement slowing to a crawl during the morning and evening rush hours.

Sanjay Ojha, who lives in Noida and works with a renewable energy firm in Gurugram Sector 44, said, “Snarls are causing delays round the clock. No matter the timing, Delhi-NCR’s roads are always jam-packed.”

Special commissioner of police (traffic) Ajay Chaudhary said measures have been taken to ensure that commuters are not inconvenienced. “Extra force has been deployed to manage traffic,” he said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi headed to India Expo Mart in Greater Noida in the morning to inaugurate the Semicon India programme. For the safe passage of his convoy, the Noida traffic police effected road closures on the DND Flyway, along with the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway and all arterial roads leading to it.

This led to massive snarls in and around Noida during the morning rush, with jams reported at the Chilla border, sectors 16 and 18, Panchsheel Bala Vidyalaya underpass, and around GIP Mall.

Rajat Gupta, a resident of Noida Sector 15, said he was stuck in congestion for about 45 minutes near Film City.

“I left home around 9.45am for my office in Greater Noida and got stuck as traffic was at a standstill near the expressway. I was unaware of the VIP movement; traffic police should have made an elaborate plan to avoid inconvenience to commuters,” he said.

The Noida traffic police said they had issued an advisory regarding the diversions and restrictions.

“According to the traffic advisory, we stopped the traffic for around seven minutes on DND Flyway and the expressway to facilitate the PM motorcade. The traffic restrictions were relaxed after the motorcade crossed the expressway,” said Yamuna Prasad, deputy commissioner of police, traffic.

Separately, rain in parts of west Delhi led to snarls on Outer Ring Road between Madhuban Chowk and Peeragarhi. Traffic was further exacerbated by potholes on the road, with puddles of rainwater on the arterial road.