Delhi | Despite underpass, snarls at rush hour persist at Ashram intersection

Traffic officers at the site said the underpass was meant to provide a signal-free ride at Ashram chowk for traffic from Faridabad and Nizamuddin. However, it has squeezed the space available for traffic that turns left towards Lajpat Nagar and right towards the DND Flyway.

New bottlenecks around the Ashram underpass, which was meant to address the glacial movement of traffic at one of Delhi’s busiest intersections, have made the mess around the vital infrastructure project worse, adding to the woes of hundreds of thousands of daily commuters who have suffered through a spate of missed deadlines going back more than a year.

During a spot check on Friday, HT found that traffic from the Apollo Hospital side was stuck at the Surya Hotel traffic signal, and further at the Mata Mandir Marg signal. (file image)

The much-delayed underpass at Ashram Chowk was finally opened for traffic this April. The problems emerged immediately after on both ends of the underground passageway, and on two traffic intersections leading to the underpass from the Faridabad side on Mathura Road. The chaos adds up to half an hour to travel times on the tiny stretch alone -- nullifying any positive impact the underpass may have had on traffic movement.

Additional commissioner of police (south) Shibesh Singh on Friday said the Delhi Traffic Police has informed the agencies concerned about specific problems that are causing traffic jams around the underpass, and on Mathura Road.

“These include the bus stops on both carriageways at Bhogal, and we have written to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) to relocate them. There are other issues, about which we are in touch with agencies,” said Singh.

A Delhi government spokesperson did not comment on the matter.

During a spot check on Friday, HT found that traffic from the Apollo Hospital side was stuck at the Surya Hotel traffic signal, and further at the Mata Mandir Marg signal. Besides these choke points, there was a long queue of vehicles at the entry of the underpass, making the left turn from the Apollo hospital side to the Ring Road towards Lajpat Nagar almost inaccessible.

Then, right near the exit of the underpass on the Bhogal side, buses stopping at a queue shelter, and jaywalkers crossing the road, led to the traffic jam spilling back into the tunnel. Private cars and auto-rickshaws parked near the bus shelter added to the chaos.

Traffic officers at the site said the underpass was meant to provide a signal-free ride at Ashram chowk for traffic from Faridabad and Nizamuddin. However, it has squeezed the space available for traffic that turns left towards Lajpat Nagar and right towards the DND Flyway. This leads to bottlenecks on the entry and exit points of the underpass, and often inside the tunnel too, one officer said.

A second officer, posted at the Lajpat Nagar circle, said, “The wait time on the traffic lights at Mata Mandir or Surya Hotel are being tweaked regularly to try and address the traffic jam near Friends Colony. In fact, this stretch is also under our Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) plan.”

But, commuters complained, that none of the experiments seem to be helping.

What has made matters worse is the piecemeal nature of the project.

Though the underpass has been opened, work on the extension of the Ashram flyover up to DND Flyway is still pending, causing jams at the main intersection. Experts had indicated even at the time of the opening of the underpass that the area would remain riddled with problems until the flyover work was complete.

Just as the underpass, which was due to open in December 2020, by delayed by 16 months, the flyover extension was due to be completed in one year, and the latest deadline is November (which is also set to be missed).

Officials of the Public Works Department (PWD), which is in charge of two projects, did not comment.

Sewa Ram, professor of transport planning in the School of Planning and Architecture, had suggested that two steps can be undertaken to address the problem. Either shift the bus stop or create extra bus bay by developing another lane. The second step that can help is a corridor improvement project between Apollo Hospital and Nizammudin where the middle portion of the road should be for through-traffic, segregating it from the side portion for left/right turns.

“Whenever there is a diversion taking place, the planning agency should leave a significant length so that crisscrossing traffic can take place at the surface level. Moving towards Faridabad, the straight moving traffic and left turning traffic at entry points is criss-crossing and exactly similar thing is happening for vehicles moving in opposite direction. As a thumb-rule, one extra lane should be left for diversions but none exists in this case.”

S Khan, general secretary of the Pocket A Sukhdev Vihar Residents Welfare Association, said the bottlenecks should have been pre-empted when the underpass was being planned.

“The bus stop at the underpass exit needs to be relocated and arrangements need to be made to segregate the straight moving traffic from vehicles that have to go left or right on the surface level. The government should undertake some adjustments to make sure that commuters are benefited from the underpass project,” he said.

Rajendra Gulati, who frequently commutes through Ashram Chowk, said the purpose of constructing an underpass at the intersection is getting defeated as there is not let up in traffic snarls at the key traffic junction.

Rohit Dawar, a taxi driver headed towards Connaught Place from Sarita Vihar, on Friday said a 20-25-minute delay is par for the course while passing through Ashram intersection in the evening. “The Bhogal end of the underpass has these illegal auto-rickshaw stands which coupled with bus halts throw the traffic out of gear. We do not find any traffic policemen to manage the situation,” he said.

Aditya Jain, another commuter headed towards Apollo Hospital, said the 3km commute between Jangpura and New Friends colony takes at least 25 minutes in the evening hours. “So much money has been spent on the project [the underpass] but mismanagement on part of traffic police and the government agencies has created a mess,” Jain said.

The busy intersection is used by more than 350,000 vehicles every day.

The idea for an underpass at this key intersection was mooted in 2014, and PWD received the nod from the LG-headed Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC) on January 13, 2016. The tussle over the funding of the underpass caused a delay of over two years in the planning stage. Work began in 2019, and faced persistent delays.

Transport experts said the agencies should have taken a holistic approach to fix the entire Nizamuddin-Faridabad corridor on Mathura Road and find a lasting solution to the traffic mess on the arterial road.

For starters, S Velmurugan, chief scientist, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), says the bus stops at Bhogal need to be relocated as soon as possible.

“The traffic signal at Mata Mandir road crossing also needs to be tweaked, keeping in mind the changed dynamics on account of the underpass. Jaywalking must be dealt with strictly, as it slows down traffic significantly. The traffic signal cycle on the entire stretch needs to be improved to ensure that the junctions do not become bottlenecks,” he said.