TNN | Aug 23, 2015, 07.12 AM IST
A smiling Akhilesh Yadav greets you from newly installed LED screens at UP Gate: Welcome to Uttar Pradesh. What comes next, though, is unlikely to make you smile except in exasperation: Welcome to NH-24.
It's hard to imagine the same road having such different characters in two states but NH-24 has, inscrutably, been like this for years. The wide, modern highway that Delhi knows shrivels up into a battered, broken, dark, joyless four-lane road as it crosses the state border and enters Ghaziabad, gridlocked night and day with vehicles struggling to fit into this narrow spectrum.
The UP government has aggressively gentrified areas along NH-24 to build huge townships that now house lakhs of people but not paid attention to the road that is its lifeline. The result is an everyday traffic disaster on the stretch between Crossings Republik and UP Gate with snarls breaking out at the slightest excuse.
Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has promised to start the long-overdue widening project of NH-24 with tenders likely to be opened next month. But till that happens, the UP government needs to find a way of giving vehicles smooth passage on the highway by deploying more policemen and closing illegal breaches on the median verge that have proliferated.
A TOI team travelled from UP Gate to the Dasna toll plaza found unauthorized cuts on central verges, wrong-side driving, non-functional traffic signals and unruly autorickshaws as the prime trig gers of the snarls.
While driving from Delhi, the snarls begin right at UP Gate as the road tapers from a six-lane stretch to a narrow two-lane one in Ghaziabad. In addition, numerous vehicles travelling through Kaushambi, headed for Noida and Indirapuram, also converge on the highway at this point. Further down the highway, more vehicles pour in from numerous cuts from the sides of Indirapuram and Noida as well. Not a single traffic light is functional on the stretch. The TOI team found traffic constables and home guards positioned at certain junctions but there was no monitoring of major intersections like Nyay Khand I and Kala Patthar cuts towards Indirapuram, the Vijay Nagar cut towards Ghaziabad and the Chhijarsi cut towards Noida.
Dorris Francis, a local activist who has been regulating traffic for several years at the first cut to wards Khoda on the highway, said the median verge had been breached in many places by people residing along the highway, leading to U-turns that create huge tailbacks during rush hour.
"A new breach has opened up on the central verge near Gaur Greens since the past few months. I have written to the traffic police and Ghaziabad Development Authority numerous times requesting them to shut it but without any result. Even buses and tractors freely change carriageways at this cut. An accident can happen any time," said Francis.
Piling of vehicles on the highway makes short-distance travels between Indirapuram and Noida extremely cumbersome. Shaili Singh, a teacher at Army Public School in Noida, drives from her home in Ahimsa Khand II of Indirapuram on a daily basis. "I take the highway from the CISF cut, drive in the direction of UP Gate and take the left turn towards Noida at Sector 62. But due to the regular jams, a distance of less than 10 minutes takes around an hour," Singh said.
The central verge has been depressed over large stretches of the highway to let vehicles freely change carriageways. Near the Hindon bridge opposite Rahul Vihar, motorcycles were seen riding freely along the verge despite the presence of a traffic interceptor vehicle and cops. Three-wheelers and other vehicles were seen using an illegal cut on the central verge near Lal Kuan in order to avoid detours for taking a U-turn. Similarly, though the breach on the central verge opposite the Vijay Nagar cut towards Ghaziabad has been closed, pedestrians and two-wheelers manage to squeeze in through the temporary dividers.
The GDA said that plans are afoot to decongest the highway till the Dasna toll plaza. "A series of service roads have been planned alongside the highway. These roads will ensure traffic meant for areas adjoining NH-24, including Indirapuram, Vijay Nagar, Pratap Vihar, etc, do not take the highway," GDA secretary Ravindra Godbole said.
National Highways Authority of India officials in Ghaziabad were not available for comment.
Braking bad: What makes NH-24 hell
Six-lane highway turns into 4-lane highway UP Gate onwards Traffic from Ghaziabad and Noida merges at over 19 cuts on the highway Breaches on central verge along the highway Depressions along central verge at various spots, allowing near merging of traffic on both carriageways Non-functional traffic signals Inadequate number of traffic cops Freewheeling and illegal parking of autorickshaws Stalls and shops at several spots along the highway.
It's hard to imagine the same road having such different characters in two states but NH-24 has, inscrutably, been like this for years. The wide, modern highway that Delhi knows shrivels up into a battered, broken, dark, joyless four-lane road as it crosses the state border and enters Ghaziabad, gridlocked night and day with vehicles struggling to fit into this narrow spectrum.
The UP government has aggressively gentrified areas along NH-24 to build huge townships that now house lakhs of people but not paid attention to the road that is its lifeline. The result is an everyday traffic disaster on the stretch between Crossings Republik and UP Gate with snarls breaking out at the slightest excuse.
Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has promised to start the long-overdue widening project of NH-24 with tenders likely to be opened next month. But till that happens, the UP government needs to find a way of giving vehicles smooth passage on the highway by deploying more policemen and closing illegal breaches on the median verge that have proliferated.
A TOI team travelled from UP Gate to the Dasna toll plaza found unauthorized cuts on central verges, wrong-side driving, non-functional traffic signals and unruly autorickshaws as the prime trig gers of the snarls.
While driving from Delhi, the snarls begin right at UP Gate as the road tapers from a six-lane stretch to a narrow two-lane one in Ghaziabad. In addition, numerous vehicles travelling through Kaushambi, headed for Noida and Indirapuram, also converge on the highway at this point. Further down the highway, more vehicles pour in from numerous cuts from the sides of Indirapuram and Noida as well. Not a single traffic light is functional on the stretch. The TOI team found traffic constables and home guards positioned at certain junctions but there was no monitoring of major intersections like Nyay Khand I and Kala Patthar cuts towards Indirapuram, the Vijay Nagar cut towards Ghaziabad and the Chhijarsi cut towards Noida.
Dorris Francis, a local activist who has been regulating traffic for several years at the first cut to wards Khoda on the highway, said the median verge had been breached in many places by people residing along the highway, leading to U-turns that create huge tailbacks during rush hour.
"A new breach has opened up on the central verge near Gaur Greens since the past few months. I have written to the traffic police and Ghaziabad Development Authority numerous times requesting them to shut it but without any result. Even buses and tractors freely change carriageways at this cut. An accident can happen any time," said Francis.
Piling of vehicles on the highway makes short-distance travels between Indirapuram and Noida extremely cumbersome. Shaili Singh, a teacher at Army Public School in Noida, drives from her home in Ahimsa Khand II of Indirapuram on a daily basis. "I take the highway from the CISF cut, drive in the direction of UP Gate and take the left turn towards Noida at Sector 62. But due to the regular jams, a distance of less than 10 minutes takes around an hour," Singh said.
The central verge has been depressed over large stretches of the highway to let vehicles freely change carriageways. Near the Hindon bridge opposite Rahul Vihar, motorcycles were seen riding freely along the verge despite the presence of a traffic interceptor vehicle and cops. Three-wheelers and other vehicles were seen using an illegal cut on the central verge near Lal Kuan in order to avoid detours for taking a U-turn. Similarly, though the breach on the central verge opposite the Vijay Nagar cut towards Ghaziabad has been closed, pedestrians and two-wheelers manage to squeeze in through the temporary dividers.
The GDA said that plans are afoot to decongest the highway till the Dasna toll plaza. "A series of service roads have been planned alongside the highway. These roads will ensure traffic meant for areas adjoining NH-24, including Indirapuram, Vijay Nagar, Pratap Vihar, etc, do not take the highway," GDA secretary Ravindra Godbole said.
National Highways Authority of India officials in Ghaziabad were not available for comment.
Braking bad: What makes NH-24 hell
Six-lane highway turns into 4-lane highway UP Gate onwards Traffic from Ghaziabad and Noida merges at over 19 cuts on the highway Breaches on central verge along the highway Depressions along central verge at various spots, allowing near merging of traffic on both carriageways Non-functional traffic signals Inadequate number of traffic cops Freewheeling and illegal parking of autorickshaws Stalls and shops at several spots along the highway.
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