Ghaziabad: Traffic police put up barricades on Delhi-Meerut Expressway to check wrong side driving

The Ghaziabad traffic police have placed barricades at Dasna on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) to check wrong side driving and discourage movement of vehicles like two-wheelers, auto-rickshaws and tractors which are not allowed on the expressway

The Ghaziabad traffic police have placed barricades at Dasna on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) to check wrong side driving and discourage movement of vehicles like two-wheelers, auto-rickshaws and tractors which are not allowed on the expressway. Officials said that wrong side driving will attract a penalty of ₹2,000, while prohibited vehicles will be fined ₹1,000 if they enter the expressway.

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The move comes after five persons, including two minors, were killed on September 6 when the car they were travelling in collided head-on with a speeding mini truck coming from wrong side near Masuri on the expressway.

According to the officials, the barricades have been put up at the point where one portion of the DME goes towards Meerut while the other goes towards Hapur.

“The instances of speeding and wrong side driving have been reported on the expressway, and this has led us to put up the barricades at Dasna. Barricades will also come up at other points on the expressway. We have also disallowed entry of two-wheelers, auto-rickshaws and tractors to the expressway. A drive has been launched to penalise such vehicles,” said Ramanand Kushwaha, superintendent of police (traffic).

The DME was opened to commuters in April this year and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is yet to start levying toll on the 60-km expressway which connects Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan to Meerut, with 42km falling under the jurisdiction of Ghaziabad district.

NHAI officials said that the toll system will start soon. “The police barricades have been deployed on our request to check traffic violations. We also demand that traffic police put up such barricades at more places between Dasna and Bhojpur and Dasna to UP Gate so that no erring vehicles like autos, tractors and two-wheelers enter the expressway lanes,” said Mudit Garg, project director, NHAI.

The DME has three inner expressway lanes on each side while the four outer lanes each side will be highway lanes and will be toll free, said the officials. The authority has mandated that two-wheelers, three-wheelers and other slow-moving vehicles will not be allowed on the expressway lanes.

The NHAI officials said that 10 traffic marshals were deployed at three key points on the Dasna-Meerut stretch (phase 4) of the expressway after the accident.

“Now, the number of marshals on the stretch has been increased to 15. We have also deployed five marshals each under phases 1 (Akshardham to UP Gate) and 2 (UP Gate to Dasna), while three have been deployed on the stretch from Dasna to Hapur (phase 3). These marshals will remain deployed 24x7 and will work in shifts,” Garg said.

The traffic officials said that the automatic number plate readers installed on the expressway, which are yet to be made operational, will provide registration numbers of erring vehicles to the police for the purpose of issue of fines.

“There had been some technical issues with the system. But we have sorted out the issues and the system is in trial run. It will commence operations within a week. The other major problem we face is non-operational tolls of NHAI that lead to unauthorised vehicles entering the expressway,” Kushwaha added.