Noida’s major intersections congested, commuters face inconvenience

Commuters say this is happening due to poor enforcement of rules by traffic officials and police. According to them, the main carriageways at the four major intersections such as Sector 71, Noida City Centre, Sector 37 and Model Town are always choked and appropriate steps are not being taken to resolve the problem.

Major intersections in Noida continue to face traffic congestion because of haphazard parking of commercial and private vehicles and encroachment by vendors.

Commuters blame police for poor enforcement. (Virendra Singh Gosain/HT PHOTO)

Commuters say this is happening due to poor enforcement of rules by traffic officials and police. According to them, the main carriageways at the four major intersections such as Sector 71, Noida City Centre, Sector 37 and Model Town are always choked and appropriate steps are not being taken to resolve the problem.

On all sides of these intersections, drivers have covered large areas by parking their vehicles --- auto and cabs -- to ferry passengers. Vendors have also installed kiosks on the roadside.

“Traffic police has been imposing fines but the situation on the ground level has not changed. Officials should ensure city roads are clear for traffic so that no one gets stuck for hours. The situation worsens in the evening,”said Anil Chauhan, a resident of Sector 37.

In March, the district police and traffic police along with Noida authority officials conducted a drive against violations. People not following traffic norms were fined and encroachments were removed.

In March alone, as many as 3, 000 people were penalized and more than 2, 000 kiosks operating illegally were removed. But it’s back to usual in city roads and markets, causing inconvenience to people.

Traffic inspector Layak Singh said they are gearing up to remove encroachments and ensuring that vendors and drivers don’t break rules.

“Traffic policemen are deployed on major intersections to ensure they are free from congestion. During peak hours, there is additional deployment of personnel,” he added.

On June 13, senior superintendent of police Love Kumar paid a surprise visit at these four intersections and directed the police to remain alert and do not allow violations.