No respite despite traffic restrictions

The ongoing repair work and the subsequent partial closure of the Kalindi Kunj bridge has led to continuous snarls on many of the city’s arterial roads. HT reports.

The ongoing repair work and the subsequent partial closure of the Kalindi Kunj bridge has led to continuous snarls on many of the city’s arterial roads.

HT Image

The strict restrictions on truck movement on the Mathura Road (NH 2) imposed in the last week of December has not brought much relief to the harried commuters. And though these restrictions have somewhat improved the situation on Mathura Road, traffic gridlocks have continued.

Following several complaints that trucks were adding to the traffic snarls, Delhi’s Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna directed the traffic police to restrict their movement on Mathura Road till 9pm till the bridge became functional. A week ago, one carriageway of the bridge - Delhi to Noida - was opened and the other was closed for a month.

Since then, the Capital’s arterial roads connecting south and east, south and north as well as Delhi and Noida are chock-a-bloc with traffic throughout the day. The situation is extremely bad during the morning and evening peak hours.

Some of the roads that see the worst traffic jams are Mathura Road, Ashram Chowk, Ring Road, Delhi-Noida-Direct (DND) flyover and Nizamuddin Bridge. “It took me over one-and-half hours this morning to cover a five-km stretch in Nizamuddin,” said Shivraj Singh, a resident of Indirapuram.

“The situation goes out of hand when vehicles break down,” a traffic policeman said.

It was on the PWD’s request that the Delhi traffic police allowed the closure of the 28-year old Kalindi Kunj Bridge for repair for two months. PWD officials said that repair work of the bridge will be completed by February-end.