On Gurugram’s Golf Course Road, jersey barriers a cause of accidents and fatalities

There are three points on the 8-km long Golf Course Road in Gurugram which have been the scene of chaos and accidents, some of them fatal due to the placement of jersey barriers.

Ill-placed jersey barriers at three points on the 8-km-long Golf Course Road have become notorious for creating chaos and accidents, some of which have been fatal. The most recent accident was on August 21, when two motorcyclists were killed after their bike rammed into a jersey barrier at Genpact Chowk.

Jersey barriers found at AIT Chowk, one of the three major points on the 8 km Golf Course Road, in Gurugram. (Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

The junction is among the three points along the stretch where the barriers have become a hazard. The other two are AIT Chowk and the U-turn opposite Vipul Belmonte, a gated condominium. The latter is particularly infamous as a spot where accidents regularly take place. On December 12, 2017, four accidents were reported in a single day at this U-turn, police said.

At Vipul Belmonte, the U-turn, demarcated using jersey barriers, for commuters coming from Bristol Chowk cuts the road width from four lanes to two, slowing traffic. Additionally, wrong-side driving by motorists coming from AIT Chowk frequently results in accidents.

Authorities have closed this point twice in the past—on August 3 and March 10. But, this backfired on both occasions as the extra volume of vehicles at AIT Chowk crippled traffic movement resulting in jams that took six hours and four hours to clear, respectively.

“It is evident that closing the U-turn opposite Vipul Belmonte is not a solution. But placing jersey barriers is not a solution either. Either way, authorities need to come up with a solution to this mess,” DLF 5 resident Meera Rai said.

To check accidents while accommodating traffic volume, experts suggest engineering changes at that AIT Chowk, located 2.5km from Vipul Belmonte U-turn.

“The AIT roundabout is wide enough to disperse 20,000 vehicles on a daily basis but the actual vehicular volume is more than 40,000 vehicles a day. If they have to close the U-turn (at Vipul Belmonte) then they must account for more vehicles at AIT Chowk. Hence, the roundabout needs to be widened,” said Sarika Panda Bhatt, the technical adviser of Haryana Vision Zero, a road safety initiative of the Haryana government.

At AIT Chowk concrete jersey barriers, used in Gurugram against the plastic orange ones used in New Delhi, have been abandoned along the extreme right hand side of the road. They take unsuspecting motorists by surprise and result in accidents.

On October 9, a sedan crashed into jersey barriers here when the driver tried to take a sharp turn, said residents.

“The jersey barriers are just there; they have no purpose. They are not diving lanes, they are not blocking a cut, they are just lying there. A sedan crashed here as the driver was unaware of its presence. Since it is serving no purpose, authorities can easily remove them,” Sector 56 resident Vinita Gujral said.

Similarly at Genpact Chowk, jersey barriers have been abandoned along the left side of the road, which is ill-lit and thus, at night, presence of concrete jersey barriers can prove to be fatal as it did in August. Residents believe that the August accident, which claimed the lives of two motorcycle riders, took place as the motorists couldn’t see the barriers in the dark.

“The jersey barriers are placed at a point where there is no streetlight. So, if you’re unfamiliar with the area, they pose a great danger and cause accidents. On many occasions, people visiting my house have said they had a narrow escape while turning at this junction,” DLF 5 resident Mihir Kohli said.

Despite these three points becoming accident-prone because of jersey barriers, these make-shift dividers continue to dot the Golf Course Road, which is looked after by the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA).

The authority’s CEO, V Umashankar, said, “Jersey barriers are important on the Golf Course Road, otherwise the traffic movement would be severely hampered and there would be heavy congestion on the stretch. The jersey barriers have been placed as a temporary measure until all road construction work is completed.”

(This is the second part of the HT series which will examine four stretches in Gurugram where jersey barriers have worsened motorists woes instead of solving them.)