Traffic resumes on Delhi-Meerut Expressway after a year

After a gap of over a year, traffic resumed on the Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway on Thursday, after the last batch of farmers vacated the UP Gate area a day earlier

After a gap of over a year, traffic resumed on the Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway on Thursday, after the last batch of farmers vacated the UP Gate area a day earlier. The officials of the Ghaziabad police said they have removed all barricading on the DME and so has the Delhi Police.

Traffic resumes on Delhi-Meerut Expressway after a year

The UP Gate area used to see about 60,000 passenger car units (PCUs) a day before the farmers’ protest began. The Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageways of the DME, as well as lanes of National Highway 9 (NH-9), of which the DME is a part, were shut on November 28 last year, in the wake of farmers occupying the UP Gate site to protest against the three contentious farm laws that were finally withdrawn in December.

“The Ghaziabad-Delhi lanes of the DME have been opened and two lanes of NH-9 have also been opened to traffic. Two lanes of the highway are still closed as some barricading is left to be removed. Traffic is plying smoothly on the expressway, besides regular traffic on the highway lanes. The Delhi-Ghaziabad lanes of the DME were already operational,” said Arvind Kumar, project director, NHAI.

The officials of the Ghaziabad police said they removed the barricades that they had put up near Khoda and also near Pratap Vihar to restrict the movement of commuters towards the UP Gate protest site.

Due to the restrictions, daily commuters were using the alternative routes through Noida’s sector 62, Hindon canal road near Khoda and Anand Vihar border near Kaushambi.

“With the opening of the DME, the diversions have automatically ended. This will reduce congestion and give relief to thousands of commuters who had a harrowing time taking detours to reach their destinations. The service lane to Vaishali is yet to be opened due to barricading while the UP Gate underpass area is now open,” said Gyanendra Kumar Singh, superintendent of police (city 2).

The traffic police said it is coordinating with the Delhi Police for removal of remaining barricades.

“The service lane from Delhi to Vaishali is yet to be opened and so are two lanes of NH-9 — from Ghaziabad to Delhi. The Raj Nagar Extension to UP Gate lanes of the Hindon elevated road are yet to open as cleaning work is still on at UP Gate. We expect the remaining routes will to be opened in the next 24 hours,” said Ramanand Kushwaha, superintendent of police (traffic).

The commuters heaved a sigh of relief on traffic resuming on DME.

“I started about an hour early each day during past one year to reach my office in south Delhi on time. Resumption of traffic is a major relief for thousands of commuters who battled jams, snarls and pollution due to diversions,” said Kuldeep Saxena, resident of Indirapuram.

The RWA office bearers from Kaushambi said their township witnessed a major inflow of vehicles due to closure of UP Gate during the farmers’ protest.

“From about 6,000 estimated vehicles on a normal day, the traffic in our township spiked to about 70,000 vehicles per day due to diversion. At last, the DME has opened and we expect that the traffic chaos in our township will end now. We faced huge traffic issues and pollution on account of diversions,” said VK Mittal, president of Kaushambi Apartments RWA.