15 firms stagger staff shift timings to end congestion at Hero Honda chowk

The district administration, Raahigri Foundation and the Gurugram traffic police have jointly started a trial on Tuesday to decongest and check for traffic violations at Hero Honda Chowk (HCC), one of the most congested and important junctions in the city, on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway

The district administration, Raahigri Foundation and the Gurugram traffic police have jointly started a trial on Tuesday to decongest and check for traffic violations at Hero Honda Chowk (HCC), one of the most congested and important junctions in the city, on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

Gurugram, India-November 29: The district administration and the Gurugram traffic police started a trial to decongest and check for traffic violations at Hero Honda Chowk (HCC), which is one of the busiest and important junctions in the city falling on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, in Gurugram, India, on Tuesday, 29 November 2022. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)(Pic to go with Leena Dhankar's story)

The teams visited HHC on Tuesday and implemented road safety measures such as temporary pedestrian islands, rumble strips, bollards, and painted zebra crossings at various points on the stretch towards Kherki Daula toll, Khandsa and Subhash Chowk, said police.

Police said they have requested 115 private companies and export houses near HCC to relieve employees from duty in a staggered manner so that there is no congestion on the stretch during peak hours. This is a novel plan to curb congestion, they said.

Virender Singh Sangwan, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), said on Tuesday evening, at least 15 companies relieved their staff in a staggered manner, about 15 minutes apart, and that helped control the congestion on the stretch. “We are experimenting with a few changes and with the help of the experts from Raahigri Foundation, we have started a trial, including a temporary solution for the U-turn, so that commuters do not have to travel a longer distance,” he said.

The traffic police has also set up spring bollards along the service lanes of the Delhi-Jaipur carriageway of the highway just below the HHC flyover. Currently, commuters wanting to head straight towards Narsinghpur or turn right towards Sector 37 occupy the rightmost lanes of the carriageway, blocking access to the U-turn, said police.

In March, deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav formed a committee comprising the district administration, Raahigri Foundation and the Gurugram traffic police to improve the traffic situation at the junction, said police.

Sangwan said after crossing Hero Honda Chowk, the first U-turn to get to the other side of the road was before Kherki Daula toll plaza, which was 5km away. “People who work in the Behrampur industrial area and Begumpur Khatola are forced by design to use that U-turn -- in essence, travelling an additional distance of 10km -- to get to the other side of the road which has a lot of residential areas. Otherwise, they resort to wrong side driving to reach the other side,” he said.

Sarika Panda Bhatt, a road safety expert and former programme coordinator of the now-defunct Haryana Vision Zero campaign, said in the Hero Honda Chowk trial, they have addressed the wrong side driving problem that has been originating from the Behrampur road towards the U-turn on HCC. “We are segregating the lanes by placing cones and installing traffic lights to ensure smooth flow of the traffic, all the while reducing the existing conflict points,” she said.

Ishan Gogoi, senior project associate of Raahgiri Foundation, said it is unfair to ask people to travel those extra 10km just to get to the other side of the road. But such issues arise when a highway cuts through a residential and industrial area, he said.

“Although there are costly solutions for that, we are conducting a traffic trial which is a low cost way to address the issue.We will implement curbs at the conflict points till permanent solutions are found,” he said.

Officials from the traffic police said accidents occur at the junction at least three times a week due to wrong side driving and around 20-30 fines are issued on a weekly basis to traffic rule violators.

According to a report by Gurugram Vision Zero (GVZ), a road safety programme by the district administration, 21 road fatalities were recorded at the Hero Honda Chowk between 2016 and 2021.