The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to deploy Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) personnel at the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway to deal with traffic snarls and prevent accidents.
In a recent meeting, Gurgaon district officials, traffic department and NHAI observed that the entry and exit points of the expressway were prone to frequent bottlenecks.
“Traffic management at entry and exit points of Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway is a major challenge, especially in the peak hours," said Ashok Kumar Sharma, project director of NHAI. "Despite traffic cops and volunteers deployed to manage the congested areas, they have failed to ensure smooth traffic management. We have proposed the deployment of CISF personnel to deal with the problem."
The proposal has been sent to CISF headquarters and awaiting decision.
The Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway has 41 entry and exit points and on a daily average, over three lakh vehicles travel through the 18-km-stretch starting from Sirhaul border to Kherkidaula toll plaza. The Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway has witnessed a large number of accidents of late, one of the main factors being two and three wheelers. The highway should not allow two and three wheelers to commute. So far, the traffic department has not had much luck ensuring that.
“We have discussed the issue of two and three wheelers being at the root of a number of accidents as their speed is slow as compared to other vehicles," said Sharma. "We believe the CISF personnel will be able to keep them off the highway,” said Sharma. He added that CISF personnel would not only take care of traffic management on entry and exit points but also be entitled to fine offenders.
Meanwhile, DCP traffic Balbir Singh said that Gurgaon police had set aside 40 per cent cops for traffic management. Besides, volunteers were also hired to do the job. “We have deployed the maximum possible strength at the expressway to minimise traffic snarls. Apart from that, many diversion plans had also been executed at major intersections to ease traffic congestion. We hope that the situation changes for better in the future,” Singh said.
