Get this stretch a route canal

The innocuous tag — Road No. 56 — may not ring a bell for the average commuter. But if you decode it for her — or him — as the road connecting the inter-state bus terminus at Anand Vihar with Ghazipur garbage dump and Dilshad Garden, watch their faces jam with terror.

The innocuous tag — Road No. 56 — may not ring a bell for the average commuter. But if you decode it for her — or him — as the road connecting the inter-state bus terminus at Anand Vihar with Ghazipur garbage dump and Dilshad Garden, watch their faces jam with terror.

HT Image

Yes, that's the road we are talking about.

Located on Delhi's periphery, the 5.5-km-long Road no. 56 separates Delhi from the eastern suburb of Ghaziabad. Cutting through densely populated residential colonies, prominent industrial areas and wholesale markets, the road virtually groans under the heavy volume of commercial and private vehicles.

Bad mix

Two national highways that connect Delhi with Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand run perpendicular to this road: this leads to interstate buses and trucks slugging it out with local rickshaws and vendor carts.

The presence of a busy inter-state bus terminus adds to the pressure.

“With buses, trucks and auto-rickshaws fighting for space here, driving on this stretch is a nightmare,” said Vivek Kherwal (38), a software engineer and a resident of Dilshad Garden.

“Thanks to huge traffic pile ups, first at Apsara Border and then at Ghazipur, it sometimes takes me more than an hour to cover these six kilometres.”

Not so constructive

Motorists complain ongoing construction along the stretch has worsened the situation.

The public works department is coming up with two grade separators to make Ghazipur and Apsara Border intersections signal free and a flyover to ease traffic movement near Anand Vihar ISBT.

Motorists, however, feel the efforts may just not prove adequate enough.

Grill Session 1

SN Shrivastava,
Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic)

Ongoing construction leading to jams

Traffic congestion on Road No 56 is worsening. Why?

Once the ongoing construction work is over, we will have far better traffic circulation.

Road experts feel the upcoming grade separators at Ghazipur and Apsara Border will help. What do you think?

Not only the two flyovers but a mega railway terminal and a metro station are also coming up and the ISBT is also being developed. So lots of train traffic will be shifted to this road. Residential areas in Ghaziabad are growing. Eventually, there will be more pressure on junctions.

People feel traffic police ignore the problem of buses, auto-rickshaws and cycle rickshaws parked illegally near the main ISBT junction.

During peak hours our main focus is to regulate traffic. But during non-peak hours, we do not allow autos and other vehicles to stop unnecessarily at one place. Our officers challan and even tow away commercial vehicles.

Grill Session 1

Rajkumar Chauhan,
Delhi PWD Minister

'Traffic is bound to increase'

People feel upcoming flyovers will be inadequate for such huge volume of traffic. Comment.

Due to the ISBT and the upcoming railway station and metro station, traffic is bound to increase. Three upcoming flyovers will help ease traffic. Once Commonwealth Games are over, we will review the situation.

Being the inter-change point for people coming from UP and Uttarakhand, pedestrian traffic is high, but facilities are missing.

There is provision for foot over bridges with each flyover. On my recent visit to these projects, I asked engineers to re-assess the situation and in case they find a need, we can have more pedestrian facilities.

How do you propose to improve traffic flow on this stretch?

Smaller intersections can be closed and motorists can be made to travel a bit extra and take U-turn from bigger intersections. Once Games are over, we will work on a plan for all of Delhi.