Driving on wrong carriageway an issue that plagues Delhi-NCR

The deaths of six people in Ghaziabad due to motorists traveling on the wrong side of the road has prompted action from traffic police in Delhi and the NCR

Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Noida: The deaths of six people in Ghaziabad on Tuesday brought back the attention of traffic police and enforcement agencies in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) to an issue that has long plagued these cities — motorists travelling on the wrong side of the road.

Motorists seen driving/riding on the wrong side of the roads in Delhi, Gurugram and Noida on Wednesday. (Parveen Kumar/ HT Photo)

Read here: Bus kills six on DME: After driver, Ghaziabad police arrest bus owner for flouting norms

Soon after the accident, traffic police in cities such as Noida and Ghaziabad sprung into action to check violators. NCR is prone to fatal accidents given that the expressways and highways in Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad also function as arterial roads which bring people to and from Delhi for work.

But some of the commuters HT spoke to said violations were common along most high-speed stretches, and stressed that things should not come to a point where it takes people to die before stringent traffic rules are enacted or enforced. Road safety experts echoed similar sentiments, and said that the problem was often of both road design and civic sense.

“Human lives cannot be this cheap that simple things like traffic law enforcement are ignored. Our cities are ill-equipped essentially — either we fall short of personnel who can monitor things, or our technology fails or our roads are damaged,” said Sanjeev Mishra, a chartered accountant and a resident of east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar.

Six members of a family on their way to a temple in Rajasthan from Meerut were killed and two others injured when their private vehicle, a Mahindra TUV, collided head-on with a speeding bus driving on the wrong side on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway in Ghaziabad on Tuesday. The bus used the wrong side of the carriageway for 7.2km before crashing into the vehicle coming from Meerut.

“I live close to the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) and am privy to rampant traffic violations while commuting to and from work. People find it easier to blame authorities but there also needs to be some civic sense that everyone’s safety matters,” added Mishra.

Permanent solutions needed

By all accounts, instances of speeding, driving on the wrong side, and roadside parking are common on DME and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), making these high-speed roads risk-prone in the Ghaziabad area.

Authorities admitted that they have been struggling to find a permanent solution to accommodate the increase in everyday traffic, coupled with the lack of personnel or advanced infrastructure.

According to the official records of the Ghaziabad Traffic Police, police issued about 15,079 challans for not parking in designated places, 11,979 for driving on the wrong side, and 59,848 for speeding on highways or expressways in 2022.

In 2023, a total of 9,217 challans have already been issued so far for wrong parking, 13,975 for wrong-side driving, 24,608 for speeding, and 6,132 against two-wheelers entering the two expressways.

But a spot check by HT on Wednesday from the Dasna to UP-Gate stretch of DME found that dozens of trucks were parked on the expressway near Dasna. Several motorists were also seen taking wrong turns.

“We have deployed about 38 traffic personnel on DME and EPE and the reduced number these days is due to Kanwar diversions. We are only receiving speeding challans from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at present. Other challans are issued manually by the traffic police,” said Ramanand Kushwaha, additional DCP (traffic), Ghaziabad.

Read here: Roads require more discipline

In the case of the Capital, the number of challans issued for driving on the wrong side only in the first six months this year is twice what it was last year, according to the Delhi Traffic Police.

Officials and experts said these were due to a combination of reasons -- public negligence, refusal to adhere to traffic rules, weak enforcement efforts, or improper proper placement of clear and visible signage,

Delhi Traffic Police booked 128,931 people for driving on the wrong side between January 1 and June 30, 2023. The figures for the corresponding period were 88,987 and 57,614 in 2021 and 2022 respectively. However, no death has been recorded this year so far due to this particular violation in Delhi.

Surender Singh Yadav, the special commissioner of police (traffic), said that the number of challans increased this year as the Delhi Traffic Police launched a special drive against wrong-side violations.

“An area-wise analysis by the Delhi Traffic Police found that Gokulpuri, Shahdara, Khajuri, Dwarka, Vasant Kunj, Kalyan Puri, Kamla Market, Paharganj, Preet Vihar, and Badarpur were the most affected areas when it comes to wrong-side violations in Delhi,” said special CP Yadav.

Yadav added that, till June 30 this year, the top 10 locations where the most number of people were booked for driving on the wrong side were Gokulpuri (30,346), Shahdara (10,252), Khajuri (8,564), Dwarka (7,152), Vasant Kunj (5,369), Kalyan Puri (4,616), Kamla Market (4,001), Paharganj (3,472), Preet Vihar (2,994) and Badarpur (2,664).

Stricter punishment

In Gurugram, traffic experts termed faulty road design and poor engineering as major causes of wrong-side driving, adding that an effective measure to address the problem might be increasing the penalty for the violation and immediately suspending the licence of the erring driver.

At least 11,000 people were fined for riding for driving on the wrong side of the road at the 38 spots identified as accident-prone in Gurugram between January and June this year, the Gurugram Traffic Police said. Some of these spots in Gurugram include Sohna Road, Dwarka Expressway, Galleria Market, Vatika Chowk, Rajiv Chowk, Daulatabad, Sohna Elevated Rod, Subhash Chowk Flyover, Hero Honda Chowk, Sector 37, Iffco Chowk and Signature Towers.

Residents said the extent of traffic violations in these areas puts both commuters and pedestrians at risk of fatal accidents. Around 20% of the road fatalities in Gurugram happen due to wrong-side driving, according to traffic police officials. The Gurugram Traffic Police launched a 15-day campaign on this recently and penalised 11,235 people so far.

In August 2022, new traffic challan rules were introduced in Gurugram, after which a violator has to pay up to ₹5,500 for driving on the wrong side of the carriageway . Earlier, this fine was just ₹500. Police said they also added ₹5,000 to the challan for dangerous driving.

Virender Vij, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), said that the violation can lead to the termination of licence as well as the registration of an FIR against the offender for rash driving, under Section 279 of the Indian Penal Code.

“We have identified 38 spots across the city notorious for wrong-side driving and deployed teams to keep a check. We often conduct awareness drives. Our aim is not to collect revenues through challan but ensure the safety of commuters who risk their lives along with others’. It has been a major challenge despite regular campaigns as commuters still drive on the wrong side to save minutes or even seconds,” said Vij.

Poor road design
Road safety expert Sarika Panda Bhatt, director, Nagarro, and co-Founder, Raahgiri Foundation said that wrong-side driving is not always a behavioural issue but is also a road design problem.

“An example of this in Gurugram is the Hero Honda Chowk or the IMT Chowk. There is no U-turn for 8-10km which prompts people to drive on the wrong side. These include cyclists as well as it is impossible for them to pedal 8-10km for a U-turn. This also unnecessarily causes traffic jams at the designated U-turn, especially near tolls,” said Bhatt.

She added that the situation is similar for pedestrians who jump barricades in order to cross the road. “It is important to delve into the reasons behind their actions. If appropriate crossing intervals are not provided, it is inevitable that people will resort to jumping the barricades. “It is unreasonable to expect individuals to walk several kilometers just to find a designated crossing point. It is unfortunate that pedestrians often bear the blame when accidents occur. The same logic is applicable for wrong-side driving too,” Bhatt said.

Read here: 6 dead as bus speeding on wrong side rams into car on Delhi-Meerut e-way

Soon after Tuesday’s accident, In Noida, the Gautam Budh Nagar Traffic Police launched a three-day drive to crack down on those driving on the wrong side.

Deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Suniti said that 20,273 challans were issued in Gautam Budh (GB) Nagar since the beginning of the year, adding that 272 more challans were issued till 6pm on Wednesday.

“The traffic police has started identifying those repeating the offence and will make a list to take strict action against them. We will consult the GB Nagar Regional Transport Office (RTO) to take strict action. We will explore all possibilities, including license cancellation and deregistration of vehicles in a joint operation with the RTO. As of now, the traffic police are identifying the list of violators. After the accident in Ghaziabad, we are aggressively identifying serious offenders,” said DCP Suniti.