As DND sees jams daily, commuters ask cops why 8 lanes remain blocked

Noida: With Noida police controlling both sides of the DND Flyway, commuters were stuck in massive traffic jams at the Noida-Delhi border for the second day in a row on Tuesday as cops resorted to stricter checking of movement passes during the peak hours.
Although, checking has been largely restricted to the peak hours, commuters have complained that their waiting time has increased as the cops are allowing movement of vehicles only through fewer lanes on both sides of the flyway. While police claim that they are opening “sufficient number of lanes” as per the requirement, commuters have asked why all lanes are not opened at DND.
Pratibha Sharma, a commuter, told TOI that while travelling from Noida to Delhi, only four lanes have been kept open by cops for traffic — three for four-wheelers ,including heavy vehicles, and one for two-wheelers.
“We manage to queue up in one of the lanes and cross over to Delhi. Cops usually stop each one for checking but only during peak hours now. However, upon returning, traffic from at least six-seven lanes merges into two or three lanes, which results in waiting time of about 10 minutes in normal course and of over 15 minutes during strict checking,” she said.
While there are a total of 14 lanes for Delhi-Noida side and 15 lanes for Noida-Delhi side, at least three lanes on the Delhi-Noida side and five lanes on the Noida-Delhi side have been blocked for commuters. Three lanes in the middle are being used for commuters who want to take a U-turn to Noida. And at least one lane on each sides is being used for commuters being forced to return by cops in case they fail to show their travel passes.
Alok Singh, a resident of Greater Noida’s Alpha I Sector, said that in order to avoid the bottleneck at the end, more lanes should be opened after deploying three cops on each of them to make travel smoother for commuters. With traffic duties thinner now than usual, finding manpower for these lanes, many commuters have said, should not be a problem.
DCP (Noida) Sankalp Sharma claimed that cops even used six lanes on Noida side during peak hours. “We are using at least six lanes during peak hours and they are sufficient for commuters. Some lanes have to be reserved for returning commuters too. Of course, some waiting time would be there if checking has to take place and we can’t promise zero inconvenience but the problem of traffic volume is more at Kalindi Kunj.”
A police officer deployed at the DND, however, said that more the lanes increased, the more number of cops will have to be deployed at the spot. “Each lane would need at least three officers each during checking time. At present, there are four sub inspectors, three head constables and seven constables deployed here,” he said.