Traffic congestion on NH-9 due to Kanwar Yatra diversions

Ghaziabad: Thousands of commuters were stuck in high density traffic on the National Highway (NH-9) near Masuri/Dasna on Friday morning even as traffic police personnel toiled hard to ease the situation till afternoon

Ghaziabad: Thousands of commuters were stuck in high density traffic on the National Highway (NH-9) near Masuri/Dasna on Friday morning even as traffic police personnel toiled hard to ease the situation till afternoon. Officials said that the heavy congestion resulted due to diversions which are in place for the ongoing Kanwar Yatra.

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Officials of the Ghaziabad traffic police said that the congestion was due to heavy inflow and outflow of vehicles in Dasna, which is also the starting point of the six-lane Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) to Delhi.

“Many vehicles were trying to move towards Amroha and Moradabad on the NH-9. As part of diversion, they were asked to take the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) through the Dasna interchange and then move towards Bulandshahr from where they could reach their respective destinations. Further, the Dasna interchange has also become congested as it is the only operational interchange on the EPE for heavy vehicles to move to Kundli, Sonipat and other areas. This is why there was a high volume of traffic,” said Ramanand Kushwaha, superintendent of police (traffic).

Traffic police later diverted vehicles to the EPE from the Dasna interchange and this took several hours. Officials said that the traffic situation was normalised by 12.30pm.

The EPE has another interchange at Duhai but it is presently shut as it is the entry/exit point for vehicles which use the Delhi-Meerut Road. The Delhi-Meerut Road is presently shut for vehicles as it is the only road which is used by Kanwariyas who are coming all the way from Haridwar in Uttarakhand.

“The traffic congestion created a complete mess near Dasna and thousands of vehicles got trapped. I was stuck for over one-and-half hours. The commuters had little knowledge of the diversions,” said Amit Kumar Singh, a daily commuter.

During the previous years, traffic was allowed to move on the erstwhile NH-24 (now NH-9) towards Hapur, Garhmukteshwar, Amroha and Moradabad. But this year police roped in a different diversion plan. Commuters in the city also face major issues due to internal diversions in place due to the closure of the Delhi-Meerut Road.

“The traffic is slow paced within the city limits and traffic personnel do not allow any deviation from the diversion plan. The major roads leading towards Mohan Nagar and Vijay Nagar are also facing frequent traffic congestion due to the Kanwar Yatra diversions. The problem is compounded during peak hours,” said Ruchin Mehra, a resident of Raj Nagar Extension.

Traffic police officials said that they have not taken a decision to shut the DME to Meerut and both sides are open at present.

“The Hindon elevated road is also open for traffic. If the inflow of Kanwariyas increases, we will take a decision to make it out of bound for traffic,” SP t Kushwaha added.

Officials are estimating an inflow of about three million Kanwariyas across Ghaziabad.

The Kanwar Yatra is being held after a gap of three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.