Snarls near Delhi-Gurugram border yet to ease, drivers blame chaos at MCD toll

GURUGRAM: A week after traffic was segregated into lanes on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway at the Sirhaul border, congestion still prevails in the area.
Vehicles coming from under the Shankar Chowk flyover, including those from Cyber City and Udyog Vihar, and heading towards Delhi first get stuck at the MCD toll booths meant for commercial vehicles. And the peak-hour traffic that starts building up around 6pm right after the toll booths further slows down the flow by 20 minutes up to the Rajkori flyover and U-turn.

What seems to be the primary cause of this chaos in the area is MCD toll collection and cabbies trying to slip past it. Despite assigned lanes and diversions for commercial vehicles, many cab drivers try to speed away that that compels toll collectors to stop them in the middle of the road, choking traffic. On both Thursday and Friday, traffic snarls continued further down the expressway till the Dwarka link road exit.

Delhi Traffic Police said the MCD toll staff has been asked not to stand at the diverging point to direct commercial vehicles towards their lanes. “They have also been instructed not to stop commercial vehicles that have entered the lane for private vehicles at this point,” ACP Manish of Delhi traffic police told TOI.

While cops also attributed Thursday evening’s massive snarls to the digging up of a small patch on the service road of the expressway, right before the Dwarka link road, they said the situation was better on Friday evening. “Cops are deployed at several points. A large number of vehicles come from the Udyog Vihar and Cyber City side and merge into the traffic coming through the flyover. The evening volume of traffic is causing the snarls,” said ACP Hira Singh of Gurugram traffic police.

On the ground, there is a lot of resistance to the new rule.

Satish, a driver of a private taxi service, preferred the old system to the new one. “For commercial vehicles, the entry point towards the Rajokri flyover is much high ahead and the narrow entry point is leading to jams,” he said. He is not entirely incorrect as the merging of traffic work smooth during the non-peak hours. But impatient drivers are seen trying to constantly change the lanes, which causes snarls during rush hours.

Commuters also blamed the toll staff for the mess. “MCD toll collectors only stop tagged vehicles and often do untimely checks which is only creating more problems for the commuters. Despite the trial and demarcation, there still seems to be a minimal use of signage boards for commuters to pre-adjust to the lanes and the traffic is manually controlled by Gurugram traffic police,” said Ashok Kumar, a commuter.

ACP Manish, however, said that despite the extremely challenging situation, the Gurugram traffic police are doing its best. “We really appreciate the exemplary efforts taken by the Gurugram police regarding the lane diversions at Rajokri border,” he said.