Plans to clear Ashram mess

The bumper-to-bumper traffic, long snarls and persistent chaos has forced the Delhi government to devise a solution to ease vehicular movement at Ashram crossing in South Delhi.

The bumper-to-bumper traffic, long snarls and persistent chaos has forced the Delhi government to devise a solution to ease vehicular movement at Ashram crossing in South Delhi.

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Delhi public works department (PWD) minister Rajkumar Chauhan said his department will soon appoint a consultant to look into the reasons behind traffic congestion at this busy intersection and suggest possible solutions. Chauhan expressed the hope that the consultant will submit his report to the government by end of this year.Despite a string of flyovers starting from Ashram crossing up to Dhaula Kuan, traffic snarls along the Ring Road in south Delhi continue to be a cause for worry for the traffic police as well as transport and public works department. It often takes 45-50 minutes to cover a distance of just 5 kilometres from Maharani Bagh, where the DND flyway ends, to South Extension during peak hours.

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Ashram crossing is a hub of vehicles moving between Delhi and Faridabad and traffic coming from east Delhi and Noida and heading towards Gurgaon and the airport.

Senior Delhi government officials admit that construction of new flyovers at Ashram crossing, Sriniwaspuri, Lajpat Nagar and Andrews Ganj have been negated by the huge increase in the number of private vehicles. They said adding infrastructure seems to the only possible solution to ease vehicular pressure at some of the locations.

For Ring Road traffic, PWD engineers said they may think of either extending the Ashram flyover or constructing another flyover over Maharani Bagh T-point and the point where the DND flyway meets Ring Road to ensure smooth movement for Noida and East Delhi traffic.

"We will take a call on this only after the consultant comes up with his suggestions," the engineer added.

However, this is not the first time that the Delhi government has come up with such suggestions. The government had thought of hiring consultants in 2008 and in 2009 too but later put the idea on the backburner due to CWG projects.