Gurgaon: Expansion of service lane eases traffic flow on expressway

The expansion of the lane has reduced the travel time for commuters by 15-20 minutes

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials have increased the road width of the service lane on exit 8 of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway by a significant margin in a bid to decongest the stretch.

The service lane records heavy traffic flow as it leads motorists to residential areas based in sectors 30, 31 and 40m, as well as multinational companies in Sector 16. (Parveen Kumar/HT PHOTO)

The service lane records heavy traffic flow as it leads motorists to residential areas based in sectors 30, 31 and 40m, as well as multinational companies in Sector 16.

Commuters coming from the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway along with those coming from the service lane near exit 7 of Signature Tower, as well as the ones from Silokhra Road, converge on the exit 8 of the service lane.

Traffic from the three sides earlier ran into a fork on the service lane where commuters, opting to take a U-turn below the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway flyover for heading towards New Delhi or Sector 16, converged with the traffic from Sector 31.

Owing to the heavy load of vehicles, traffic at the fork was severely congested as vehicles tried to navigate their way towards their destination and the traffic backlog stretched till the main carriageway of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway.

To solve the traffic crisis, NHAI officials decided to do away with the fork altogether by felling trees and opening an extra lane on the spot.

“We were getting numerous complaints from daily commuters and also received suggestions from traffic police to implement engineering changes for decongesting traffic on the exit 8 service lane. Hence, we felled trees at the junction and opened a new lane for commuters heading towards New Delhi or Sector 16,” a senior NHAI official said.

Read I Traffic violators add to chaos at e-way service lane near Ambience Mall in Gurgaon

For daily commuters, the expansion of lane has reduced their travel time by 15-20 minutes.

“I dreaded the 100 m drive from office, as I had to take a U-turn for heading towards New Delhi during the evening hours. I inevitably got stuck. The extra road width has streamlined traffic movement and ensured smooth flow of vehicles,” Virender Singh, an infrastructure firm employee, said.