Bad road dividers turn death traps

Unfinished dividers spring up suddenly in the middle of road.

Constructed three years ago at a cost of Rs 60 crore, Rao Tula Ram (RTR) flyover in south Delhi remains a nightmare for motorists.

On Thursday morning, an Afghan national lost his life and many others were injured, thanks to the road divider that suddenly springs up in the middle of the flyover.

It was initially opened to traffic coming from the IGI Airport but the flow was reversed within a month. Due to objection from local residents, the flyover took shape of a single carriageway flyover instead of a full-fledged flyover. The next year the narrow flyover was opened to two-way traffic. The latest solution found by the Delhi traffic police is to create a central verge on the flyover to reduce congestion.

HT Image

The haphazard construction of the divider coupled with high speed proved costly for 28-year-old Qasim. His car hit the divider, which is only half built and starts from the middle of the flyover, and caught fire at 5.30am on Thursday.

Police said construction of the divider was left in the middle without any instruction, turning the area into a blind spot.

"They are putting concrete slabs on the flyover to divide the road for inbound and outbound traffic. They have completed the work only till the middle of the flyover. Anyone can ram their vehicles into the divider and that's what happened on Thursday morning," a senior police officer said.

A PWD official said, "The process of constructing the central verge on the RTR Flyover started about 20 days ago and would be completed in another 30 odd days. A total of 300 barriers will be constructed in the central verge."

But the problem is that the central verge is being built one concrete slab at a time with no signage to warn motorists like Qasim. By the time the police reached the spot, the young translator with a city hospital was charred to death, with his vehicle looking like a skeletal remain of the tragedy.

"After hitting the divider, the car turned left and hit the side wall of the flyover. Soon after the collision, the car caught fire. Four occupants on the back seat managed to come out along with the person sitting next to the driver. But Qasim got stuck and died," a police officer said.

"I got to know about the incident at 7:30am. Now we want take his body back to our native country," a relative said.