UP Gate chokes after new Delhi-Ghaziabad flyover opens

  • | Wednesday | 18th October, 2017

Only one side of the UP Gate flyover has been opened. "We were relieved when we read media reports 10 days ago that the NHAI will open up a portion of the flyover before Diwali. In rush hour, this is choking both the flyover and the service road below it.Moreover, traffic from the flyover and the service lane is funneling into a two-lane highway (widening work hasn't yet started after UP Gate), creating a bottleneck there anyway. We assumed it will enable seamless movement of traffic between Delhi and Ghaziabad, but exactly the opposite has happened," said Ashish Kumar, a resident of Indirapuram. If that U-turn is closed, then another is opened further down NH-24,M towards Indirapuram.

GHAZIABAD: UP Gate , as you knew it, is gone, and a flyover now stretches over the Delhi-Ghaziabad border, but crossing it is proving a difficult task.The opening of the flyover last week, meant to ease traffic flow from Delhi to Ghaziabad , has ended up doing exactly the opposite because of ham-handed traffic management that now sees traffic crawling over a 2km stretch either side of the border. The Diwali rush has made it worse. Crossing UP Gate, say daily commuters, now takes anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the time of the day, with jams stretching past Khoda on the Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway and till Ghazipur on the opposite side.The opening of the flyover has complicated things because cars taking a left turn into the highway from Link Road (Vaishali side) are taking a U-turn at the mouth of the flyover to go to Delhi. If that U-turn is closed, then another is opened further down NH-24,M towards Indirapuram. In rush hour, this is choking both the flyover and the service road below it.Moreover, traffic from the flyover and the service lane is funneling into a two-lane highway (widening work hasn't yet started after UP Gate), creating a bottleneck there anyway. Only one side of the UP Gate flyover has been opened. Its other leg, for Ghaziabad-Delhi traffic, is still under construction.The National Highways Authority of India, which is widening NH-24 for its Delhi-Meerut expressway project, and Delhi and UP police now have to put their heads together to come up with a solution. "We were relieved when we read media reports 10 days ago that the NHAI will open up a portion of the flyover before Diwali. We assumed it will enable seamless movement of traffic between Delhi and Ghaziabad, but exactly the opposite has happened," said Ashish Kumar, a resident of Indirapuram. "It takes more than half an hour to cross the stretch, which is very dusty because of construction work," he added.Other said they the constantly changing diversions and U-turns have left commuters confused. "Anyone who is not familiar with the stretch can feel dazed," said Arvind Mishra, a Vaishali resident.Traffic inspector Ramesh Tiwari said police were not expecting this. "The NHAI had initially stated that out of 7 lanes of the flyover, it will devote three lanes for Delhi-bound traffic from Ghaziabad but due to some technical reasons, we are told it could not be opened. As a result, traffic from Ghaziabad to Delhi is taking the narrow lane by the side of flyover," Tiwari said.What has compounded the problem is the placement of the MCD toll booth at the Delhi border in the middle of the road, which creates another bottleneck. "We held a meeting with Delhi Police and requested the toll booth to be shifted to some other place," said Tiwari.NHAI project director RP Singh said in another five days, NHAI will open three more lanes of the flyover for traffic from Ghaziabad to Delhi. "It is taking time due to some technical issues, which we hope to sort out in a couple of days and after that, hopefully, the situation will improve," he said.

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