Illegal exits on highways, major routes cause chaos on roads

For decades, illegal exits through dividers on highways and major roads in the city have persisted despite several attempts to bridge them. Such exits have resulted in chaotic traffic situations and is a major cause of accidents.

For decades, illegal exits through dividers on highways and major roads in the city have persisted despite several attempts to bridge them. Such exits have resulted in chaotic traffic situations and is a major cause of accidents.

According to police data, NH-24, NH-58 and NH-91 have 17, 22 and 15 illegal exits respectively.

According to traffic police data till 2015-end, there are 17 major illegal exits on the stretches of NH-24 that pass through the city, 22 major illegal exits on NH-58, 15 illegal exits on NH-91, which are frequently used by pedestrians and those moving within the city.

“Such exits are posing serious hindrance to traffic on highways and major city roads. One never knows when a pedestrian or a vehicle will pass through these exits. The exits are leading to dangerous traffic conditions on the roads and accidents are frequent due to these exits. Commuters cannot drive at a high speed due to these exits,” Nishat Sinha of Kavi Nagar said.

“Apart from posing danger for vehicles, such exits keep popping up. The authorities have tried to bridge these exits but those living on both sides of the highways open them up by damaging the dividers. Even auto drivers open up these dividers for easy movement to the other road side. Such exits must be bridged once and for all and taller dividers must be installed,” BK Pandey of Vaishali said.

Officials of Ghaziabad traffic police said that the highways passing through the city have old dividers which are wide and are not very tall.

“This makes easy for people to damage the dividers and make their way through, for easy access to the other side. We are going to bridge them down once again with the help of development agencies. Those found damaging the dividers will be penalised heavily,” Rajesh Kumar, superintendent of police (traffic), said.

Officials said that one of the major solutions to get rid of the illegal exits is to raise the height of the dividers to nearly 3-4 feet and concretise them. Officials had suggested the move in a comprehensive mobility plan in 2015 but the agencies have failed to take a note so far.