Tyre killers at U-turn near Noida sectors 41/50 removed for design change

The newly designed strip of tyre killers installed at the U-turn near sectors 41/50 last month has been removed to make some changes in its design as it became ineffective against two-wheelers driving on the wrong side, officials of Noida authority said.

The new design was tested for the first time in India by a Swedish company.

The officials said the company has initiated repair work. They said that changes are being made in the design as two-wheeler riders were able to drive on the wrong side by placing the wheels between two spikes.

The revamped new design is expected to be installed by Monday.

The Noida authority has denied the rumour that the tyre killers were removed by miscreants.

“We clarify that the company has removed it for making some improvement. It will be replaced soon,” P K Garg, senior manager of Noida authority, said.

After installing tyre killers at the sectors 76/77 intersection in last December, the authority got another strip installed at the U-turn near sectors 50/41 intersection in January to curb driving on the wrong side.

“We were trying it for the first time and did not realise that two-wheelers with thinner tyres of about 85mm were able to go through undisturbed. We are reducing the space between two spikes from 105mm to 75 mm,” Antriksh Tyagi from JVM technologies, the company that had installed the device, said.

He said the company may also be sharpening the spikes a bit so that there is greater hindrance for wrong side drivers, yet no damage to vehicles driving on the right side. Tyre killers are meant to stop drivers from driving on the wrong side, which is one of the most common traffic violations in the city.

According to data from the traffic police department, as many as 8,510 commuters were fined in 2016 for driving on the wrong side. The figure for 2018 jumped almost 10 times to 81,477.

Residents of Sector 50 said that the tyre killers were installed after demand by several resident groups who had noticed the intersection becoming an accident hotspot because of wrong side driving.

Resident also said that the tyre killers had been effective in reducing traffic violations and accidents.

“All residents are unhappy with regular traffic violators who drive on high speed on the wrong side. School buses and two-wheelers are habitual offenders in this area,” Rajesh Sahay, a resident of Sector 50 and the general secretary of the Noida federation of apartment owners’ associations, said.

“We want the improved tyre killers to be installed again soon,” Sahay added. The tyre killer strip installed near sector 50 had a different design from the previous one that was criticised by some resident groups as being unsafe and not very effective.

The new tyre killer was conceived and installed as a free trial by a Swedish firm and was manufactured in South Africa. In the new device, each spike retracts individually after pressure from the right side but will not retract if there is pressure from the wrong side.

In the older design installed earlier, several spikes would retract together in a patch when there is pressure.