No end to dancing numbers on road linking Ghaziabad to Delhi

GHAZIABAD: How many times have you seen that social media video of a group of friends standing atop a car in the middle of a road and dancing to loud music as vehicles swoosh past or stop by to figure out what's happening?
That's exactly what the cops in Ghaziabad are trying to stop - stunts, dance videos and even birthday celebrations on the road.

The police are having a tough time managing the 10.5km Hindon elevated road, which offers a panoramic view of the city and a perfect background for social media videos. So far, 30 people have been arrested for making Reels or Shorts on the speedway, where vehicles hurtle down at almost 100kmph.
Apart from the lack of round-the-clock vigil, what has crippled the police is the lack of high-resolution speed-cameras. Officials said the city badly needed the implementation of the smart traffic management system, which will ensure more cameras on the stretch.
The latest incident where youngsters made the elevated road their dancing stage was from last week. A video widely circulated on social media a couple of days ago showed two women recording short clips while cutting a birthday cake on a car's bonnet.
As commuters slowed down their vehicles to watch the two women match their moves to "saat samundar paar", it led to a jam. Two vehicles even had a minor collision, though no one was injured in the accident. On Monday, the two women - Rekha and Seema - and Vikas Srivastava (Rekha's husband) were arrested.
An FIR was lodged against them under sections 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 341 (wrongful restraints) of the IPC, said Prabhat Dixit, the SHO of Kaushambi police station.
The police said the lack of cameras was one of the main reasons why many youngsters got away. "Those who shoot the videos know exactly where the cameras are installed. They avoid these points and get away easily. It's not possible to man the stretch 24x7," an officer said.
But it's not just the elevated road that's giving the cops a nightmare. Elsewhere in the city too, the police have to deal with groups doing risky stunts in the middle of the road.
So far, the police have issued 35 challans to bikers engaging in stunts. At least 10 of them were caught on the elevated road.
On September 25, four youths caused a snarl on the elevated road as they played loud music and danced to it. All four - residents of Delhi's Mayur Vihar Phase 3 - were arrested and booked under sections 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the IPC.
Four days earlier, 18 youths involved in two different birthday celebrations took traffic hostage on the elevated road. All 18 were arrested after their videos were uploaded on social media.
Swatantra Singh, the local ACP, said they had increased patrolling in the area and initiated talks with the authorities concerned to implement the smart traffic system at the earliest.
KC Pant, who runs Rasta, an NGO chronicling road accidents, said youths shooting social media videos on speed corridors were not just putting their own lives in danger, but those of others too.
"Such things distract other commuters and they lose focus on the road. This is how accidents happen," he added.