Delhi Gurgaon Expressway: 24 lanes shut, 15 km traffic jam

Utter mis-management and mis-communication between the concerned authorities led to a massive 15 km long traffic jam on the Gurgaon-Delhi carriageway on Friday i.e. 22/05/2015. It left commuters stranded in their vehicles in the blistering summer heat in one of the worst traffic scenario that Delhi has witnessed till date.

The High court ordered to scrap the Sirhaul toll plaza on the Delhi-Gurgaon border in 2014, as it was the cause of traffic jams on the 32-lane expressway. Now, the Punjab and Haryana High court ordered that this expressway must be made 8-laned consistently. So on May 22, 2015, MCEPL (operator of the expressway) decided to barricade 24 out of 32 lanes in the peak traffic hours of the day, without any prior notice to the public. Neither the National Highways Authority of India nor the Gurgaon or Delhi Police claim to have been aware of this exercise which led to a completely chaotic traffic scenario on the expressway.

Commuters claim to have been stuck for over 5 hours in their vehicle while caught in the jam. Temperatures rising, commuters' patience going out of control, cars breaking down and the lack of lane discipline only made matters worse. A distance of 15 kms is how long the traffic jam was claimed to be.

NHAI held a meeting with the traffic police and MCEPL later on Friday, instructing them to notify the Delhi and Gurgaon Police as well as make a public announcement and display signages to inform commuters about the trial (to be held on May 26, 2015).

Source: Times of India
Image Source: mensxp, indiatimes, Tushar Ranjan