E-Paper
Farmers protest: Traffic jams on Delhi’s border points during rush hour
New Delhi: With main Delhi-Haryana and Delhi-Uttar Pradesh borders remaining fully or partially closed, traffic movement remained affected in the city, mainly in
New Delhi: With main Delhi-Haryana and Delhi-Uttar Pradesh borders remaining fully or partially closed, traffic movement remained affected in the city, mainly in eastern and outer districts.
Vehicles moving towards Delhi from Haryana and UP were diverted to alternative routes, causing jams on the border points and on the nearby roads. However, the situation was relatively better on Friday as the motorists were aware about the closure of the borders and diversions.
Like the last three days, when at least two more borders connecting Delhi to Noida and Ghaziabad, were partially closed, no new road was blocked on Friday.
Gagan Chawla, 41, an IT professional who was travelled from Noida to Delhi and back, said due to closure of Chila border the available alternate routes witnessed heavy traffic. “I heard it was even worse on Thursday. However, while returning to Noida there isn’t much chaos,” he said.
Vipul Garg, who was travelling from Ghaziabad to Delhi, said traffic on Friday was relatively better than Thursday. “Yesterday, I had to take alternative routes to reach Delhi via Apsara border but today, since I was aware I could easily avoid traffic jam,” said Garg, a businessman.
While the commuters continued to face problems due to the traffic jam, the protesting farmers who had blocked the expressway carriageway in Ghazipur on Thursday morning said they have left space for ambulances and other emergency vehicles to pass.
The closure of the border routes also slowed down the movement of the vehicles on Anand Vihar-Ghazipur road and other routes through which the motorists were entering Delhi from Ghaziabad.
The Chilla border (Delhi-Noida Link Road), which was closed completely for at least 22 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday, was partially opened on Thursday. Even on Friday, one carriageway connecting Noida from Delhi remained open while the opposite carriageway going towards Delhi from Noida was completely closed as the protesting farmers remained on that road along with their tractors and other vehicles.
The police diverted the traffic on other routes such as DND, Kalindi Kunj, Dallupura, Khoda, New Ashok Nagar, and Kondli border borders. Although heavy traffic was witnessed in the morning and evening hours of Friday on those routes as well, the situation was slightly better than what it was on Thursday.
The other border points closed by the police are mostly located around Singhu and Tikri borders. Many of these routes were used by farmers in the last three days to enter Delhi despite strong barricades at the two main borders.
The border points fully closed since Wednesday were the Jharoda, Lampur, Auchandi, Safiabad, Piao Maniyari, and Saboli. Badusarai border remained open only for light motor vehicles such as cars and two wheelers, while Jhatikara border is open only for two-wheeler traffic.
Delhi police also issued traffic advisory in advance and even took to social media to continously update commuters about live traffic situations.
Anil Mittal, additional spokesperson, Delhi police, said in an advisory, the Chilla border on Noida Link Road is closed for traffic from Noida to Delhi due to farmers protests near Gautam Budh Dwar.
“People are advised to avoid Noida link road for coming to Delhi and use DND, Mittal said.
He added, due to the on going farmers’ protest, Ghazipur Border on NH 24 and NH 9 are also closed for traffic from UP to Delhi. “People are advised to avoid NH 24 and use Apsara/Bhopura/DND flyover to enter Delhi,” the officer said.
