Debris, Games make it ‘worst’ year for traffic
Delhiites make 80 phone calls in a day on an average to the traffic police complaining about traffic jams.
Delhiites make 80 phone calls in a day on an average to the traffic police complaining about traffic jams.
Till August this year, the Delhi Police Traffic helpline had got more than 21,000 calls from people stuck in traffic in different areas of the city. In the whole of last year, the same helpline got 19,721 calls.
The police said this year has seen the worst traffic jams. And one of the major contributors was roadside debris that reduced much of the road space.
With the arrival of athletes and delegates for the Commonwealth Games from Friday, the situation is going
to get worse as 105 kilometres of the 450 kilometre of arterial roads in Delhi have been reserved as “dedicated lanes”. Any another vehicle trespassing on the lane will be slapped a fine of Rs 2,000.
Besides roadside debris, 1,661 calls were only about potholed roads that made it all the more difficult to drive in thecity this year.
Delhi has a road length of 31,183 kilometres and has 65 lakh vehicles on its roads every day.
“We had advertised a lot about our helpline number so we got many calls from people stuck in traffic jams in various parts of the city. Of the total calls received as many as 1,661 pertained to bad and potholed roads,” said Satyendra Garg, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic).
Despite 23 per cent land area in the Capital dedicated to roads and increase in the road length by 20 per cent since 1996, there has been a considerable drop in the traffic speed and road availability per vehicle, the police said.
On Wednesday night, Delhiites were stuck in massive traffic jam for more than three hours when the Gurgaon expressway was choked during peak hours.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was also stuck in a major traffic jam near ITO.
Due to the heavy rain the Dwarka underpass was waterlogged, forcing authorities to shut it down, leaving commuters stranded for hours. The entire south Delhi traffic was affected.
Police said they also received 1,300 calls where people complained about traffic violations by others.
“There were more than 1,300 calls where Delhiites complained of traffic violations by others, say if someone has jumped a red light or has indulged in rash driving,” said the officer.