Traffic police to start trial at Kherki Daula toll plaza next week

Gurugram: The Gurugram traffic police next week will start a three-day trial, starting May 28, at Kherki Daula toll plaza, in which the design of an existing U-turn — around 50m before the plaza — on the Gurugram side of National Highway 48 (NH-48) will be altered, said the officials on Thursday.

Ravinder Singh Tomar, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) traffic, said that the U-turn is accessed by commuters on main carriageways and service lanes, many of whom drive on the wrong side as the next U-turn or exit on the highway is located at Hero Honda Chowk, which is more than five kilometres away. This leads to “crisscrossing of traffic movement and causes heavy congestion on the highway, besides accidents on the service lanes due to wrong-way driving”, he added.

To overcome this, medians on both the service lanes will be extended so that commuters cannot access the U-turn, said the traffic police officials, adding that the U-turn will be redesigned in such a manner that only those driving on the Delhi-Jaipur carriageway will be able to access it.

“Many commuters accessed the exit (before the plaza) for moving from one service lane to another. This led to traffic congestion on NH-48. We, in association with a road safety non-governmental organisation (NGO) Trax, will carry out a three-day trial next week to streamline traffic movement and prevent commuters on the service lanes from driving from one end of the highway to another,” said Tomar.

The traffic trial will be in place on May 28 and 29, but the officials are yet to decide the third day of the trial, which is likely to be on May 27 or May 30.

Tomar said that depending on its success, the three-day trial would be extended by a few days for the traffic police to understand the traffic flow and challenges better. “There is a huge 20-30m gap on the expressway, which is being used by commuters from all possible directions. To eradicate this, the U-turn will be extensively redesigned in a manner that traffic movement from only one direction could avail it,” said Anurag Kulshrestha, president of Trax, adding that “a section of the exit will also be barricaded with jersey barriers so that it could be quickly removed and accessed by vehicles from all directions during emergencies.

After the Sirhaul toll, the Kherki Daula toll plaza is the most congested stretch in Gurugram, and at least 60,000 vehicles access it daily, said the traffic police.

On April 16, the traffic police also launched another trial at Kherki Daula toll plaza — on the Manesar side of NH-48. A U-turn located 70m before the plaza was opened for traffic movement, and an exit near the toll bypass road for Faridabad — 600m before the toll plaza — was closed. Only light vehicles are allowed along both the exits. On April 29, the traffic trial was made permanent, with the traffic police opening the exit 70m before the toll plaza for heavy vehicles, and permanently closing the exit near the bypass road.