‘Poor planning, mismanagement cause the chaos, not toll plaza’

The major problem with the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway is poor management of traffic and lack of planning. This stretch of the road has been planned and built on the basis of inadequate data on traffic flow and this was the reason why there used to be chaos at the now-defunct Sirhaul toll plaza.

The major problem with the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway is poor management of traffic and lack of planning. This stretch of the road has been planned and built on the basis of inadequate data on traffic flow and this was the reason why there used to be chaos at the now-defunct Sirhaul toll plaza.

Maxwell Pereira, Former Joint Commissioner of Police of Delhi. (Abhinav Saha/ HT photo)

The data on traffic flow should be based on future projections. But this did not happen in the case of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

This is why there is heavy flow of traffic on the service lanes between Shankar Chowk and Iffco Chowk as there is no access to the highway. The underpasses, flyovers and clover leafs being planned today should have been envisioned and built 20 years ago. By the time these new projects are completed, the traffic scenario will change completely.

Another problem in Gurgaon is that there is no planning to manage traffic and rules are not followed. As far as the toll is concerned, the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway was constructed by a private firm and it is entitled to collect user fees. I am of the opinion that toll is not the problem.

The need of the hour is to improve toll management skills, as it happens abroad. India needs more highways and better roads.

Toll plazas are needed to ensure the viability of a project. But the plazas should facilitate travel and not become a bottleneck.

Another problem at the toll plazas is rampant corruption and leak of revenue.

It is surprising that people from India are working for large infrastructure projects across the world very successfully, but it does not happen the same way in India due to lack of intent, both political and executive. The worldover, easy pass and other smart tag systems ensure smooth travel on expressways, but in India, incompetence and negligence fail the system.