70,000 challans spur NHAI to add no-entry signs on Gurugram highways

The restrictions cover two- and three-wheelers, tractors, non-motorised vehicles and hydraulic trailers on access-controlled NH-48 and Dwarka expressways.

After traffic police issued around 70,000 challans for no-entry violations on the Dwarka and NH-48 expressways between January and July, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started installing no-entry and speed-reducing signages at entry and exit points of highways and elevated corridors in Gurugram, officials said on Saturday.

The measures seek to strictly enforce restrictions on two- and three-wheelers, non-motorised vehicles, tractors and hydraulic trailors on the “access-controlled” sections of the Delhi-Gurugram (NH-48) and Dwarka expressways, officials privy to the matter said. Around 5,945 challans were also issued across Gurugram in August.

NHAI officials said no-entry signboards have been erected at two highway openings for the NH 48 and Dwarka expressways. “Slow down” and “accident-prone area” road markings and signages will be installed within a week on Gurugram-Sohna road. Similar measures will be implemented at identified locations across all three highways based on crash data records and field inspections.

In July, traffic police representatives at the monthly review of the district’s road safety committee observed that no-entry signages were installed at intermediate locations along the main carriageway. NHAI was subsequently directed to examine the matter.

NHAI’s January 2024 order under Section 35 of the Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002, prohibits certain classes of vehicles from accessing NH 48 from Km 14+300 to Km 42+000 and the Dwarka expressway from Shiv Murti to Kherki Daula.

Separately, NHAI was directed to install four- to five-foot-high iron grills on the central median of Gurugram-Sohna road to prevent unsafe pedestrian crossings. “Several safety signages have already been installed as part of the rectification of 13 different locations across highways. The remaining signboards and markings at Sohna Road are currently under process,” a senior NHAI official said, requesting anonymity. The official added that increasing the height of grills on Sohna Road was found unfeasible.

In August, NHAI began fixing grills on the internal and ground sections of the Dwarka expressway stretches connecting to sector areas.

During a general parade meeting on August 31, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Prateek Gehlot directed 202 traffic personnel to maintain heightened vigilance through strategic deployments to curb violations involving overloaded trucks and two-wheelers entering restricted highway stretches on the NH-48, Dwarka, KMP and Delhi-Mumbai expressways.