Five more auto stands to ease congestion in Noida

Noida:Noida traffic police have earmarked and started regulating five auto stands at busy intersections across the city to ease congestion, beginning Wednesday

Noida:Noida traffic police have earmarked and started regulating five auto stands at busy intersections across the city to ease congestion, beginning Wednesday.

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Officials have designated spaces at Model Town crossing, Sector 34, Surajpur Ghanta Chowk, Botanical Garden and Kisan Chowk where autos will only be allowed to pick and drop customers with a brief halt.

“There were different problems at these individually managed intersections and a nodal time slot in charge (TSI) was appointed to oversee progress. There is a slight diversion for buses near the Model Town crossing and Botanical Garden so that they don’t halt along the main carriageway. Halts for autos and e-rickshaws have been regulated at these locations,” said Ganesh Prasad Saha, deputy commissioner of police (traffic).

He said that regularization of these five auto stands have been able to reduce congestion at all these intersections. With no designated parking lot for autos in the city, drivers usually wait along roads blocking the carriageway, often leading to congestion at these intersections. While the authority is in the process of conducting a survey to identify parking lots, traffic police officials say that the new system is producing good results at these five intersections.

At the model Town intersection, a pink auto stand was designated but remained mostly unused. It has been converted into a regular auto stand now, with a shaded spot for commuters to wait. Additionally, unauthorized autos coming from Ghaziabad have been penalized and removed from the area.

At Botanical Garden, buses have been restricted to the service road and will not halt along the main carriageway. A route has been designated for buses to halt at a vacant area near Botanical Garden metro station. In Sector 34 and Kisan Chowk, autos are allowed to park only at the service road for brief periods.

At Ghanta Chowk in Surajpur, autos have been allotted designated parking spaces on two sides of the road, about 50 metres ahead of the chowk.

“There is space along the service road on two sides — towards Yamaha Chowk, and Pari Chowk towards Noida. The autos are restricted to these areas so that there is more space along the narrow carriageway. By regulating autos, we have ensured that about 80-100 autos can wait around this area at a time without causing a bottleneck,” said Ashutosh, traffic inspector.

Officials added that traffic near Atta market has also been in control since the diversion for autos and e-rickshaws was created about a month ago. “While people would take about half an hour to cross the road, they can smoothly drive past now. Even those who wish to take autos can walk for about 500 metres and get to the end of the road on both sides,” Saha said.