Massive jams in Jaipur-Delhi carriageway with 5km long queue of vehicles

Traffic police officials advised commuters coming from Jaipur to use the toll bypass road to head towards Delhi until the situation returns to normal

A massive traffic congestion on the Jaipur-Delhi carriageway of Delhi-Gurugram Expressway was reported on Wednesday morning following the closure of one carriageway of the Hero Honda Chowk (HHC).

Commuters are taking around 45minutes to cross the 4.7kilometre long stretch. ((File Photo by Vipin Kumar| Hindustan Times))

The traffic congestion is such that there was a five-kilometre long queue of vehicles stretching from the junction to the Cloverleaf flyover.

Commuters are taking around 45 minutes to cross the 4.7 kilometre long stretch which otherwise usually takes around 10 minutes.

The situation has remained the same since 8.45am when the peak morning traffic hours began.

Gurugram traffic police officials diverted vehicles heading towards Delhi from the toll bypass road located 3km before Kherki Daula toll plaza via Southern Peripheral Road (SPR), Sohna Road, and Golf Course Extension Road.

Traffic police officials advised commuters coming from Jaipur to use the toll bypass road to head towards Delhi until the situation returns to normal.

Gurugram traffic police officials said the service lanes are not equipped to hold the large volume of vehicles due to which there is heavy congestion along the five-kilometre stretch.

“The service lanes aren’t being able to sustain the large volume of vehicles, we have started diverting vehicles through the toll bypass road and via the arterial lanes located before HHC wherever possible,” said a senior Gurugram traffic police official.

Traffic police officials said that vehicle movement on the opposite carriageway, Delhi to Jaipur, was largely unaffected.

Despite traffic police issuing a public advisory about the carriageway closure and the route diversion on Tuesday, many residents said that they were unaware of the changes.

“It took me over 40 minutes to cross the HHC congestion. Traffic is moving at a snail’s pace. If I had known about its closure, I would have taken the toll bypass road to head to the office,” said Rahul Sinha, who works in sector 30.

The 1.4-kilometre-long carriageway of the HHC flyover closed starting Wednesday for a six-day period due to a span load test work binge executed along the stretch by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

Since April 2018, the carriageway has twice developed wide holes. The test is being executed to check if the remedial measures have worked and if the carriageway can sustain a heavy load of vehicle movement.

Instead of the flyover, commuters have to use the service roads of national highway (NH) 48 to head from Jaipur towards Delhi.