Road blockade shifts choke point to Delhi’s Barapullah elevated corridor

The Barapullah elevated corridor has emerged as a new traffic choke point with Road No. 13A — connects Delhi and Noida from Kalindi Kunj — remaining closed for the last 18 days due to ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amended Act (CAA) at Shaheen Bagh.

The Barapullah, which was constructed to ease the rush on the Ring Road and the adjoining areas, is now bearing the load of commuters travelling between Delhi and Noida. Till last month, Road Number 13A used to provide a direct link for those travelling between Golf Course, Noida sectors- 45, 46, 50 and 37. However, with the closure of this primary link between Delhi and Noida for over a fortnight now, commuters are now using the Delhi-Noida Direct Flyway via Barapullah to reach south Delhi.

Delhi Traffic police officials said that this has made the elevated corridor a traffic nightmare for commuters even during the non-peak hours and also during weekends.

“Since we have closed the road (Road Number 13A), there is crowding on Barapullah, DND and at the Ashram intersection. We did not have any option but to close this road to control the protests from getting violent,” said a senior Delhi Traffic police official.

Traffic police department confirmed that even though a section of the protesters have called off their agitation, the road between Kalindi Kunj and Noida continued to remain closed for traffic movement till Thursday evening.

“There is still a large section of protesters that are still camping at Shaheen Bagh and we will have to take necessary action,” a senior traffic police official said.

Traffic police’s estimates show that before the closure of this link road, around 80,000 to 100,000 vehicles were using the Barapullah elevated road during the peak traffic hours of morning and evening. However, over the last three weeks the numbers have swelled to nearly 150,000 lakh vehicles.

Besides cars and two-wheelers, trucks and other heavy commercial vehicles are also now taking Barapullah, which was not the case earlier.

Thirty five-year-old Shruti Singh, who frequently travels between south Delhi’s Moti Bagh and east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar Extension, said last Saturday the entire Barapullah flyover was clogged with vehicles, inching at snail pace.

“Barapullah was a the alternative to reach east Delhi and Noida fast, but I have been noticing that for the past few weeks it has become just another traffic choke point. I was travelling on Saturday afternoon, and it took me around 40 minutes to cross the bridge,” Singh said.