E-Paper
Traffic crawls at Delhi-Ghaziabad border as cops screen all vehicles for passes
Ghaziabad: Thousands of commuters were caught in a long traffic jam at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border due to the strict checking by the police on Wednesday. The snarls,
Ghaziabad: Thousands of commuters were caught in a long traffic jam at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border due to the strict checking by the police on Wednesday. The snarls, say commuters, began around 9am and led to long tailbacks that stretched to the internal roads of Ghaziabad.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said Delhi borders will be sealed for a week. Ghaziabad has put in similar restrictions since April 22, citing a rising number of Covid-19 cases in the district which were linked to city residents who travelled to Delhi.
“I came to drop off my wife who goes to Delhi by carpool. But we got stuck as there is heavy jam from UP Gate up to Dabur crossing on the Link Road and also up to Gaur Green Avenue in Indirapuram on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway. The police were checking every vehicle, which led to the snarls,” Jeevan Singh, a resident of Vasundhara, said.
Dr Swati Sinha, a resident of Indirapuram, who works as a senior consultant with a hospital in Qutub Institutional Area in Delhi, said she was stuck up for about two and half hours and had to return home on Wednesday morning.
“My patient was waiting at the hospital for a surgery scheduled at 11am. But I was stuck in the jam at the border till 11.30am. So I handed over the patient to another doctor and returned home. The jam on Wednesday took me by surprise as traffic was smooth on the other days. There was also some road work going on near the Hindon canal. I generally move out by 8am but today I left at 9am and got stuck,” she said.
The Ghaziabad police said the checking of vehicles by the Delhi Police led to traffic jams on the UP side.
“The Delhi Police are checking vehicles at the border and the traffic movement was slow. We had long queues on the Ghaziabad side. On our side, we are checking vehicles which are entering Ghaziabad from Delhi,” Anshu Jain, circle officer (Indirapuram), said.
Delhi Police said they intensified checking on Wednesday after getting complaints that no checking was being done. “Initially, we were only checking vehicles intermittently to spare commuters the inconvenience. But when many complaints were received that no checking was being done at the border, we put up barricades and increased the checking. That caused long snarls. Later, we relaxed the checking to avoid further congestion,” deputy commissioner of police (east) Jasmeet Singh said.
Some of the commuters who left Ghaziabad for Delhi early morning said there were no checks around 7.30am.
“I crossed the UP Gate border around 7.30m and there were no checks either on the Ghaziabad or the Delhi side. There was less traffic and I reached my office within 45 minutes. The National Highways Authority of India is also undertaking repair work on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) and this has also added to jams near UP Gate,” Kuldeep Saxena, Indirapuram resident, said.
Among vehicles stranded in the gridlock were ambulances destined for Delhi.
“I am carrying a critical patient to AIIMS from UP’s Sambhal. Our entire journey till Indirapuram was smooth. But from there onwards, the traffic was thick. We got stuck in the jam for more than 45 minutes,” the ambulance driver, who refused to share his name, said.
The NHAI officials said the jams were not due to DME work but due to barricading at the border area of NH-9.
“According to our estimates, there is about 80,000 PCUs (passenger car units) at UP Gate on Wednesday, which is just one fourth the traffic on a normal day. The volume is the same at our toll at Chhajarsi (at Pilkhuwa town in Hapur). Our road has full capacity to cater to the traffic and our works have not hampered movement of vehicles. It is because of barricading and checks taken up by the Delhi and UP police,” Garg said.
