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NH-9 completely choked as protesters block Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway at UP Gate
The UP-Gate border is part of Delhi-Meerut Expressway project and caters to estimated 120,000 passenger car units on a daily basis
Amid their Bharat Bandh call, protesting farmers at Ghaziabad’s UP-Gate border blocked the Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway even as heavy deployment of police and other personnel looked on. The protesters, last week on Thursday, had shut down the Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway and with Tuesday’s development, National Highway-9 is now completely blocked.
Hundreds of protesters who had been staging protest at the blocked Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway on Tuesday morning proceeded to the Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway as soon as the bandh started from 11am.
“The traffic is blocked by protesters on the other side as well and they said that it will be for a few hours. The Delhi Police has stopped traffic from their side and have made diversions,” said Kalanidhi Naithani, superintendent of police, Ghaziabad.
Ghaziabad district administration and police had made elaborate arrangements for the bandh but were unable to prevent protesters from blocking the other side of the highway even though it was imminent. They had said they were fully prepared and will not allow blockade of the second carriageway of the highway.
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“We were prepared but did not take any stern action. The protesters have told us that they will remain on Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway till 3pm when their bandh ends. In the meanwhile, the Delhi Police have also diverted traffic on their side and no vehicle is coming to UP-Gate from Delhi. The other side is already closed,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate.
The UP-Gate border is part of Delhi-Meerut Expressway project and caters to estimated 120,000 passenger car units on a daily basis. It caters to commuters from Ghaziabad, Noida and Delhi and also to the long-distance commuters who travel to Moradabad, Bareilly and Lucknow among other cities in the state.
As both carriageways at the UP-Gate remained blocked on Tuesday morning, commuters used the nearby Kaushambi-Anand Vihar border (Maharajpur border) to move between Delhi and Ghaziabad. Ramanand Kushwaha, superintendent of police (traffic), said there was no disruption at other borders with Delhi.
“The traffic is plying normally between Delhi and Ghaziabad at other borders except on NH-9 where it is completely blocked at UP-Gate. However, the volume of traffic at other borders is low considering the Bharat Bandh call,” he added.
VK Mittal, president of Kushambi Apartments resident welfare association, said that ever since the Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway was blocked, majority of commuters were using the Kaushambi border to move to Delhi.
“The movement of commuters continued even on Tuesday but there were fewer vehicles though they continued to move to Delhi through the inner lanes of our locality as well,” Mittal, added.
