Gurugram traffic police's trial plan for decongestion receives commuters' flak

The trial is focused on Shankar Chowk, a major intersection connecting the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway with Cyber City, Udyog Vihar, and Ambience Mall

To ease the traffic snarls that have been haunting the Gurugram commuters, the Gurugram traffic police on Thursday launched a two-week phased trial of a traffic management plan for busy junctions at peak hours.

File photo of traffic jam in Gurugram (ANI Grab )

The trial is focused on Shankar Chowk, a major intersection connecting the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway with Cyber City, Udyog Vihar, and Ambience Mall, news agency PTI quoted officials as saying.

However, for commuters, the ordeal was far from over as confusion prevailed on the roads. "The trial fell flat on the very first day as a major traffic jam occurred on the Delhi-Gurugram border," a commuter was quoted as saying.

"On normal days, the traffic snarls ended here by 11.00 am, but due to the trial, the drivers could not understand and the vehicles going towards IFFCO Chowk were also diverted towards Ambience mall," the commuter added. A long queue of vehicles at the Sarhaul border, which stretched several kilometres into Delhi, had commuters stranded.

The officials said that new barriers were placed near Ambience Mall and specific lanes were designated for vehicles coming from Delhi with the rightmost lane designated for vehicles heading towards IFFCO Chowk and Jaipur. The middle lane was designated for Cyber City, Udyog Vihar and Sikandarpur, while the leftmost lane was designated for vehicles going to Ambience Mall.

Additional police personnel were deployed to control traffic flow from the border to Shankar Chowk as part of the trial run, said Rajesh Mohan, DCP traffic.

He added that the trial run will last at least a week, after which its effectiveness will be assessed.

"The big signage for lane changing will be displayed at the border. If drivers designate their lanes in advance, they won't face traffic jams," the DCP said.

"In the first phase of the trial, traffic from Delhi to Gurugram is being streamlined. After conducting this trial for two weeks, any shortcomings will be addressed and it will be made permanent," the DCP said.

(With PTI inputs)