manoj

Millennium City has become Difficult Destination. Getting into Gurgaon and getting out during peak hours is becoming traumatic. And with each commuter trying to find an alternate route to escape the jams on Mehrauli-Gurgaon (MG) Road and NH-8, all the four roads that connect Delhi with Gurgaon are getting choked.

While the situation is equally bad within the city, long snarls are now becoming commonplace on the other two connecting roads — Old national highway via Kapashera and the narrow Palam-Bijwasan road.

For commuters, the trips are a nightmare since the density of traffic on all these roads is much more than their carrying capacity. There is a high percentage of private vehicles on all these stretches — about 46% of the trips constitute cars and two-wheelers. According to a RITES study, buses constitute only 25% of the total traffic flow. The future may not be any better. A study done by the department of town and country planning (DTCP) says that intra-city trips daily are expected to reach 15.6 lakh and inter-city trips 23 lakh by 2021. Out of that, 20.2 lakh trips will be from Delhi alone.

NATIONAL HIGHWAY-8 (EXPRESSWAY UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

According to the DTCP study, peak hour traffic on NH-8 near Rajiv Chowk is 5193 vehicles per hour. This means the total traffic flow is much higher on this stretch since about 50% vehicles enter Gurgaon and only those heading towards Manesar and Jaipur reach Rajiv Chowk. ‘‘It’s a nightmare during morning and evening peak hours. Whichever way you take — either to Delhi or to Gurgaon — you are sure to suffer across two-three kilometres,’’ said Bhawani Shankar Tripathy, a regular commuter to Qutab Institutional Area in Delhi.

Though the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials claim the mess on the Delhi-Gurgaon border, IFFCO Chowk and Palam crossing would be fixed within two months, there’s no assurance for Hero Honda Chowk. The construction work for an underpass at this crossing has not yet started, which means commuters will have to undergo hardship for next one-and-a-half years.

MEHRAULI-GURGAON ROAD

Traffic from AIIMS, Badarpur, Khanpur, Saket and Vasant Kunj takes this road to reach Gurgaon. The road has five major bottlenecks, all of them stretching over long distances.

Hundreds of vehicles, mostly cars and theelers, form a long queue as soon as they cross City Centre and it’s a bumper-to-bumper drive up to Andheria Mor. After Sahara Mall crossing, the second snarl starts from Sikanderpur and stretches up to Nathupur. The third stretch starts from Arjangarh and goes up to Ghitorni. There is little respite since 5-10 minutes later, the trafficslows down near the Sultanpur crossing, leading up to the Chhattarpur crossing.

Commuters heading for Gurgaon go through the ordeal during the morning peak hours. ‘‘We took the NH-8 for the first two days after the opening of Mahipalpur and Udyog Vihar flyovers, hoping to find some relief. But we are back on this stretch. It takes ages to reach Andheria Morh from IFFCO Chowk,’’ said Sumit Verma of Vasant Kunj.

Since the construction of the Metro has begun on this stretch, little relief can be expected. The MCD has announced eight-laning of this road in future.

OLD NATIONAL HIGHWAY (KAPASHERA BORDER ROAD)

Road-widening work has shrunk the space available. Redevelopment of the Dundahera stretch falling under Gurgaon has been progressing at a snail’s pace. Though the traffic coming from Delhi is diverted from the MCD toll plaza, there is no respite for commuters heading towards Delhi.

On an average, over 460 vehicles take this road each hour during evening. The potholes add to the misery of the commuters. Immediately after the border, Delhi administration has allowed what seems like a bus depot to come up which creates perpetual traffic jams and causes heavy-vehicle tyranny all through the day. Moreover, the Gurgaon administration has also allowed an auto stand on their side of the border where the drivers hold other road users to ransom.

PALAM-BIJWASAN ROAD

This road is 10-metre wide and runs along fields till it enters Bijwasan village. From this point onwards, it is like travelling through a narrow village road, with numerous twists and turns. Vehicles move bumper to bumper, in a single file, like an army convoy. If a truck happens to enter this road —and there are many trucks because there are many godowns — it takes 30 to 40 minutes for smaller vehicles to pass.

The road has hundreds of potholes and speeding here means damaging your vehicle. Nobody owns this road and there is always water flowing out of drains from the village houses along the roads.

The Gurgaon police says it can do nothing more than deploy additional manpower. ‘‘We have identified 70 spots during peak hours and deployed more traffic policemen to manage the traffic. These problems can’t be fixed in a day. To ease the chaos at Hero Honda Chowk, we have made it compulsory for the trailers to avoid NH-8 during peak hours,’’ said ASP (traffic) N S Ahlawat.

No doubt, the solution lies in strengthening the road network. And that wasthe recommendation of a consultant during the preparation of the 2021 Master Plan: ‘‘Before creating traffic control systems, there is a need to add to the road capacity. There is a need to segregate the slow-moving and fast-moving traffic and conduct a comprehensive traffic and transportation study for a long-term transport strategy.’’

Source: http://epaper.timesofindia.com (Delhi Edition)
Date Of Publish: 19-feb-07

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hemant

How bad is the traffic situation in Mehrauli-Gurgaon (MG) Road. Traffic jam one at Aaya Nagar crossing on MG Road and other at Ghitorni village...really very bad...What do you think???

prem

hemant wrote

Right hemant...road traffic situation on MG road becomes very bad during peak hours and i m sure that it will become worst in upcoming days b'coz construction work for metro rail project has been started on this road and definitely it will create lots of hurdles for commuters.

spy

Huge potholes on MG road due to construction work of metro train… makes driving here a virtually impossible task.