Truck breakdown holds up traffic for 3 hours on Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway

The hold-up resulted in many commuters getting delayed for work and other engagements. Those headed for the airport, especially, panicked as they feared they would miss their flights.

Traffic flow on the Gurugram-Delhi side of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway was disrupted for three hours on Tuesday morning, after a truck broke down ahead of the Mahipalpur flyover.

A swarm of cars and other heavy vehicles that caused a traffic jam at Delhi-Gurugram expressway at Sirhaul Toll plaza due to the breakdown of a truck at Mahipalpur area, in Gurugram (Yogesh Kumar/Hindustan Times)

The hold-up resulted in many commuters getting delayed for work and other engagements. Those headed for the airport, especially, panicked as they feared they would miss their flights.

The truck blocked almost two lanes of the main carriageway, leading to a five-kilometre-long jam on the expressway during the morning rush hour. According to the traffic police, the truck, ferrying heavy stones, broke down around 9am and was only removed by 11am. It took until noon for the movement of vehicles to return to normalcy.

“Unfortunately, the truck broke down in the middle of the carriageway instead of the side of the road. It blocked the movement of vehicles on two lanes of the six-lane carriageway, as a result of which there was a five-kilometre-long backlog, extending until the Sirhaul toll. We informed the Delhi traffic police officers about the development as well. However, they did not have a spare crane at that time and so, we decided to take our crane to Mahipalpur,” said Rajesh Kumar, traffic inspector, Gurugram police.

Kumar said that the Gurugram police’s cane could not support the weight of the truck and they had to seek the assistance of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), who lent their hydra crane to the police at the Sirhaul toll.

“We removed the vehicle from the spot with the help of the hydra crane and stationed it at a spot on the service lane of the expressway, below the Mahipalpur flyover, which is anyway blocked for vehicular movement. It took around an hour for traffic on the expressway to normalise as there was a long backlog,” said Kumar.

K Jegadesan, joint commissioner of police, traffic, Delhi, said,“We ensured adequate deployment and the situation was normalised in two hours. Our deployment remained in place for a few hours to tackle the ripple effects of the breakdown. Even the ACP and traffic inspectors were on ground zero to manage the traffic.”

Many were delayed due to the truck breakdown. “I had to board a flight back home to Shillong from Terminal-1 at 1.30pm. Despite leaving from Sector 50 around 10am, the hour-long journey took me more than two hours as I got caught in the congestion. By the time I reached the airport, the boarding gates had been closed,” said Gabrial Fancon, of
Shillong.

With the services of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s Yellow Line also affected on Tuesday morning, some residents took to social media to vent their frustration. “@RailwaySeva @RailMinIndia no metro, traffic is crawling between Gurgaon to delhi. Request to depart train no 12368, 20 minute late. Please!! (sic),” @SumanRoy tweeted.

Residents could also not reach their office on time. “More than 2.30 hrs in the traffic from Gurgaon to Delhi .all routes blocked. what a pity missed some important meetings @dtptraffic @gurgaonpolice (sic),” @AnilTrigunayat, a diplomat tweeted.

Some commuters said they had to take an additional 11-kilometre detour to reach their destination. “I had to head towards Delhi Cantonment. Just before I reached Shankar Chowk, I got an alert about the impending traffic at the Sirhaul toll. Left with no choice, I had to alter my route and take the MG Road and travel via the arterial roads in Delhi to reach my destination. While this took me lesser time than the expressway estimate on the route map, I had to drive an additional 11 kilometres,” said Aniket Kapoor, a resident of DLF-5.