‘Illegal’ U-turns created by commuters invite major accident on GMS Road

A major accident is in waiting on the state capital’s GMS Road as some locals have created at least four illegal U-turns on it by removing temporary divider blocks.

Temporary concrete divider blocks were removed seven days after the traffic police welded them together.

At least 4 illegal U-turns have been created from a tri-section towards Transport Nagar till Ballupur Chowk on about 4 km long GMS Road.

As there are no U-turns on it till Ballupur Chowk, offenders have created the illegal u-turns to avoid covering a distance to make a u-turn.

“These illegal U-turns are posing a great danger to the commuters travelling on GMS Road as some of the commuters who tend to use these u-turns, suddenly apply brakes to pass through it and in process surprises the one travelling behind them in an unpleasant manner,” said Dhirendra Nautiyal, a resident of Kanwali Gaon area near GMS Road.

Nautiyal said the illegal U-turns also lead to traffic jams during peak hours.

“During peak hours, the use of these U-turns often leads to traffic jams on this busy road as the traffic which is in flow on this road had to stop till the offenders pass through. Apart from this, it also poses a great danger of accidents on roads as violators after removing the divider blocks, leaves them on the road only,” he said.

Pankaj Kumar, who runs a fast-food store on the side of GMS Road, agreed with Nautiyal and blamed stubbornness of some of the locals and commuters for the problem.

“Some of them have no respect for the law and are stubborn enough to not to follow it. Despite the traffic police fixing the blocks a few days ago by welding them together, some removed them only to bring the situation back to zero. Strict action should be taken against the offenders,” said Kumar.

Asked, deputy inspector general, traffic, Kewal Khurana said: “Police will install CCTV cameras on the road by Monday so as to capture offenders who remove divider blocks.”

“Strict action would be taken against them accordingly. Apart from this, police have asked the PWD to construct permanent dividers on the road to end the problem forever,” the police officer said.