U-turn near Kherki Daula toll plaza closed in Gurugram

Commuters on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, who take the Haryana Shahri Vikas Pradhikaran’s sector road parallel to the Southern Peripheral Road to avoid Kherki Daula toll plaza, were taken aback on Tuesday morning after they found the U-turn on the expressway blocked. Hundreds of commuters living in developing sectors take this U-turn to have access to the HSVP road, which help them avoid the payment of toll.

Notably, the Millennium City Expressway Private Ltd (MCEPL), the concessionaire of the expressway, has been demanding the closure of HSVP road access to the expressway citing heavy loss of toll revenue.

With this apprehension in mind, the commuters from developing sectors were shocked and started sharing pictures of the closed U-turn on various social media platforms. “The sector road is a lifeline for many residents of developing sectors as it helps them avoid the congestion at Kherki Daula toll plaza. If this road is also closed, then people will protest against it,” said Manoj Lakhani, a resident of the area.

Some people were also of the view that since the HSVP road connected to the expressway is outside the jurisdiction of the concessionaire, there should be no problem. “If this road is closed, then it would cause a lot of trouble to people,” said Rajiv Singh, a daily commuter.

When asked about the matter, MCEPL officials said that the U-turn from Jaipur side was blocked by the police. The service road towards Vatika flyover was also closed and vehicles were allowed to take a U-turn towards Jaipur side. “This road was opened around 2.30pm and thereafter traffic movement was clear. We have repeatedly asked the NHAI to get this access road closed, but no action has been taken,” said S Raghuraman, CEO, MCEPL.

NN Giri, preoject director, NHAI, said that they have written to the HSVP to block this access road in the past and awaiting action from the authority. “I am not aware about today’s situation, but we had asked for its closure due to revenue loss,” he added.

The confusion was cleared by traffic police officials, who said that the sector road was closed due to an accident and it was opened later. “A dumper carrying construction material had got stuck on the service road, and it was causing congestion. So, we closed the road in the morning. Later it was opened,” said inspector Tejbir Singh, in- charge of traffic in the area.

First Published: Aug 07, 2019 11:04 IST