Rush hour traffic snarls on Noida-Greater Noida Expressway

The Noida-Greater Noida Expressway experienced unusually high volume of traffic on Wednesday morning, inconveniencing commuters during the rush hour

The Noida-Greater Noida Expressway experienced unusually high volume of traffic on Wednesday morning, inconveniencing commuters during the rush hour.

Rush hour traffic snarls on Noida-Greater Noida Expressway

Commuters on their way to Greater Noida from Noida were a harried lot due to the traffic congestion at multiple points on the expressway.

The first bottleneck was created when a truck broke down and overturned near Sector 105 around 9am on the main carriageway. It halted traffic during the peak hours of the morning, leading to a long line of waiting vehicles. According to traffic officials, the Noida to Greater Noida route is generally free during the morning hours, while there is higher traffic from Noida towards Delhi, but the trend was reversed on Wednesday morning.

“There was an over two kilometre-long queue of traffic after a truck broke down on the main carriageway. Most of us are definitely not used to having traffic on this side of the road. It is relatively less congested, but the scene was different today morning and traffic came to a standstill due to its high volume,” said Rakesh Kumar Jha, a resident of Noida.

Officials said that traffic police personnel were immediately on the job and the overturned truck was dragged to one side of the expressway within 30 minutes.

“Our cameras saw the truck much before we started getting distress calls on the traffic situation. We were able to respond immediately and the truck was brought to one side within half-an-hour and we started clearing traffic. We have been closely monitoring our response time regarding all such incidents,” said Ganesh Prasad Saha, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), Gautam Budh Nagar.

However, just about an hour later after the truck had been moved out of the main carriageway, another bottleneck was created near Sector 96 due to underpass construction work. This was also on the stretch that connects Noida to Greater Noida. Traffic started building up again at around 10am and a long queue of vehicles was seen.

There are three underpasses that are being constructed across the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway that have been causing recurrent traffic jams. Officials said that the issue has been already raised with the Noida authority.

“We have asked the Noida authority to discuss with their contractors and plan ahead if any stretch of the expressway needs to be blocked. We have already spoken to them regarding better and efficient planning and increasing the speed of construction work,” said DCP Saha.

DCP Saha added that the underpass construction work and resulting traffic snarls will soon be resolved along with the Noida authority.