With first rains, traffic goes for a toss in Noida, Ghaziabad
Roads riddled with rainwater-filled potholes caused traffic jams in various parts of the two cities.
Traffic congestion added to Monday morning blues of Noida and Ghaziabad residents as roads riddled with rainwater-filled potholes caused traffic jams in various parts of the two cities.
In Noida, the combination of under-construction projects and monsoon has wreaked havoc on traffic movement. The traffic police has decided to deploy six-seven personnel at all major bottlenecks during rush hours. The traffic police are majorly concerned regarding intersections where heavy constructions are underway.
The nearly five-km stretch from Model Town near National Highway (NH) 24 to Sector 71 – the main road connecting Noida with Ghaziabad and Delhi – has been the worst hit. There are five intersections between Model Town and Sector 71 badly disturbed by metro construction and underpasses.
“Model Town, Electronic Tower, Petrol Pump, Mamura and Sector 60 are major bottleneck areas. Subway or underpass constructions are underway at Model Town and Sector 60. Metro construction from Model Town to Mamura Chowk is also causing congestion. I have directed my staff to deploy six personnel at these points and at least two to three at every intersection linked to this road,” said Prabal Pratap Singh, superintendent of police (SP), traffic.
“I have also asked my staff to manually regulate traffic at NTPC and Sector 30/31 intersections that are in a mess due to construction of elevated corridor on Master Plan (MP) 2 Road. These are some of the sites where we have received complaints of traffic jams. As constructions are underway in rains, the traffic moves slowly,” said Singh.
Meanwhile in Ghaziabad, traffic officials said that Mohan Nagar intersection, Bhopura trisection, Arthala U-turn, CISF road and Vasundhara intersection were some of the major points to see slow traffic on Monday.
“At around 9am, a van coming from Delhi towards Ghaziabad broke down on the Bhopura intersection reportedly because of major waterlogging in the area. This resulted in confusion and traffic chaos in the area till 11am,” said Anil Kumar, traffic inspector, Ghaziabad. He added that traffic constables had to be sent to Mohan Nagar intersection and CISF link road to regulate the traffic.
“Traffic on NH-24 from Vijaynagar area to Indirapuram was also slow on Monday morning. However, after 10am, it resumed normal speed,” said Kumar.
Commuters claimed that they saw long queues of vehicles at Arthala U-turn on Monday morning.