Gurgaon traffic: cops’ proposal ignored, relief a far cry

In order to streamline traffic at the Kherki Duala toll plaza on Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, the Gurgaon traffic police had proposed a plan that included widening the National Highway-8 at this stretch and increasing the number of toll booths. But the plan has apparently fallen on deaf ears.

In order to streamline traffic at the Kherki Duala toll plaza on Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, the Gurgaon traffic police had proposed a plan that included widening the National Highway-8 at this stretch and increasing the number of toll booths. But the plan has apparently fallen on deaf ears.

Kherki Daula toll plaza effectively separates Gurgaon and the commercial hub at IMT Manesar. But even as thousands of commuters travel through the plaza every day, the situation here remains choc-a-block with there being not enough lanes to accommodate the ever-increasing traffic. The problem is aggravated by the ongoing construction of the Pink City flyover which begins immediately after the toll plaza.

The traffic police had repeatedly written to local authorities like the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda), highway custodians National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as well as the expressway concessionaire firm, Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DGSCL) in this regard.

“We also raised the issue in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, put forward a plan to widen the stretch and increase the lanes to accommodate more traffic,” said Bharti Arora, joint commissioner of police (traffic), Gurgaon, adding that nothing has happened till date and the problems has only multiplied over the years.

“Trucks are the main problem here. They cause accidents due to improper U-turns. We can cross over the expressway either at Rajiv Chowk or at Kherki Daula as there is no crossover facility between the two points. Every day there is an accident at Kherki Daula,” said Rambir Singh, a local resident.

Although the concessionaire firm claims to have taken steps to streamline the traffic, the problem does not appear to have reduced a bit in proportion. “As a concessionaire, we have taken several on-ground measures to ease the traffic flow at Kherki Daula toll plaza. Recently, we have expanded the toll plaza by adding two more lanes on the Jaipur-Gurgaon side which has increased the traffic handling capacity of the toll plaza by more than 20% on the right-hand side. We have also deployed additional traffic marshals and lane attendants increasing their number to around 30 and extra barricades have also been put to improve segregation of traffic,” said a spokesperson of DGSCL.

The traffic police have been struggling to streamline the traffic on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, especially at the two toll plazas.