Noida’s Sector 78 newly built U-turn fails to ease traffic woes due to its design

The Gautam Budh Nagar traffic police on Sunday said that they recently wrote a letter to the Noida authority, urging them to redesign the newly built U-turn near Sector 78 in Noida due to the massive traffic jams it has caused over the past 15 days.

Meanwhile, residents and commuters in Noida have also expressed their concerns over the city’s newly constructed U-turns, which instead of alleviating traffic congestion, seem to be exacerbating the issue.

Around a month ago, the Noida authority constructed two U-turns in an effort to streamline traffic flow near the Sector 78 crossing, which was planned for closure along with the removal of traffic lights at the intersection.

However, following the closure of the crossing and removal of the lights, traffic congestion reached critical levels during peak hours in the area.

Traffic inspector Ram Singh stated, “For the past 15 days, traffic police have been observing traffic chaos close to Hyde Park in Sector 78. Due to heavy traffic congestion in the area, we started deploying traffic personnel at the spot, but later it was identified that the design of the newly built U-turn was wrong.”

He said, “Due to limited space at the U-turn, heavy vehicles such as buses and trucks find it challenging to negotiate the turn. We observed that these vehicles had to maneuver back and forth repeatedly, causing massive traffic congestion as vehicles were moving bumper to bumper during peak hours in that area.”

Singh added, “We have advised the Noida authority engineer to reconstruct the design and widen the road. A letter was also written in this regard.”

Meanwhile, while speaking to HT, Noida authority junior engineer Parvindar Kumar said, “Initially, the U-turn had a width of 9 metres, but we expanded it to 10 metres. Following the traffic police’s suggestion for more space, we plan to widen it to 11 meters and also expand the adjacent road to eliminate the bottleneck.”

However, Kumar also noted that residents of Hyde Park and other nearby societies had been driving in the wrong lane for a shortcut after the construction of the U-turn. “We have pointed this out to the traffic police,” he added.

As traffic woes persist, many residents have taken to social media to voice their concerns as well.

Brajesh Sharma, a resident of Antriksh Gold View Society in Sector 78, said, “Initially, I had to stop for 80 seconds at the traffic signal of the Sector 78 crossing, but after the U-turn, the 80 seconds have turned into 15 minutes due to unprecedented traffic congestion and unnecessary travel, as my colony is located close to the Sector 78 crossing.”

He added, “There are 10 to 12 colonies around the Sector 78 crossing, and after the newly constructed U-turn, thousands of residents are encountering traffic congestion.”