Traffic from city to Del choked, tailback reaches Shankar Chk

Gurgaon: People heading from the city to Delhi were stuck in a long traffic jam on NH-8 near the border on Friday afternoon, a phenomenon that commuters say is routine, but one that Gurgaon cops claimed was worse due to ongoing construction along a portion of the highway in the capital.
The tailback reached Shankar Chowk in the city, around 2km from the Delhi-Gurgaon border.
DCP Virender Vij said there were no traffic obstructions on the Gurgaon side and that congestion due to construction linked to the Dwarka Expressway project near Shiv Murti in Delhi had a cascading effect on Friday.
He also said the police are in touch with their counterparts in Delhi to coordinate and ensure smooth movement of vehicles.
Snarls are common on both sides of the eight-lane expressway, where vehicles are often seen crawling, especially during the rush hours. Lakhs, among them office-goers, take the expressway as it is among a handful of routes connecting the city with the capital.
Commuters told TOI that traffic is particularly worse on specific days of a week.
“The volume of traffic is very high on Fridays and Mondays,” said Sumar Mishra, who commutes regularly from his home in East Delhi to his office in Cyber Hub.
Siddharth Mittal, who also lives in Delhi and works in Gurgaon, said the traffic on Friday was “bumper to bumper” and it took him over half an hour to cross the Sirhaul border.
According to Gurgaon police, the “geometry” of the Gurgaon-Delhi carriageway of the expressway is also to blame for frequent chaos near the Sirhaul toll plaza.
“The carriageway’s width bulges out near the toll plaza, and then it narrows again. As a result, traffic moves in a higher volume at a faster pace towards Mahipalpur, but that area does not have the capacity to handle that many vehicles, leading to a jam,” a Gurgaon police officer said.
In March this year, a portion of the expressway carriageways was shut from both directions for three months to construct two underpasses and a flyover as part of the Dwarka Expressway project. At the time, commuters were directed to slip roads.
Traffic is now being diverted near Shiv Murti. Earlier this month, a span between two pillars of the under-construction flyover collapsed in Delhi’s Rajokri, crushing to death a JCB operator. The Dwarka Expressway is supposed to take the traffic load off NH-8 as an alternative route connecting Delhi and Gurgaon.