NEW DELHI, December 20: One of the major intersections that leads traffic out of the Capital into the states of Haryana, Punjab, Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir has become a motorist's nightmare. Round the clock, kilometres of cars, buses, trucks, scooters and cycles crawl at a snail's pace on the Delhi Bypass stretch of the Outer Ring Road that empties into the Grand Trunk Road. An Express Newsline team spent an evening there observing the chaos. There were a hundred-odd trucks loaded with vegetables going towards the Azadpur Subzi Mandi. Drivers of inter-state buses simply park at the intersection and rev their engines till the time a sea of passengers has got in and there is not an inch of space left to stand.Then begins a race between drivers of DTC, Blueline, Haryana and Punjab Roadways buses to reach the border first. Hundreds of cars coming from Gurgaon on the left and from UP and Delhi on the right are no deterrent.
There are three traffic constables, a head constable and a zonal officer posted at the intersection. ACP (traffic) Tilak Ram Tyagi told Express Newsline: ``Five traffic personnel are not enough to control the traffic here. There is a snarl every day from 6 am till 1 am. The drivers of the trucks and the Haryana and Punjab Roadways buses just don't behave. They drive rashly, stop mid-way and park at the wrong places. The number of fatal accidents here is not high as the traffic is extremely slow-moving. On an average, there are three non-fatal accidents at this intersection every week.''
There are no street lights on the GT-Karnal road for over a stretch of 10-odd kilometers. According to the police, a week ago, a man was almost run over while he was changing a car tyre. The bus driver said that it was so dark that he had not been able to see the man.
One the roadside is a constant stream of residents of neighbouring colonies, who when they have to travel inter-state, refuse to make the long journey to ISBT. There are mountains of suitcases, trunks and rolls of quilts that sit next to their owners. The local bus-stop is practically deserted. Says Raguvir Kumar: ``I take the Delhi-Chandigarh bus from here. Why should I go all the way to ISBT?''
The GT-Karnal road has been dug up on the sides by the PWD department. Though the initial idea was to widen the road, the heaps of earth and stones slow down the traffic further.
Says head constable Jagdish: ``The roads have been lying dug up for the past two months. PWD labourers work only between 1 am and 5 am. There is so much traffic at other times that it is impossible to work.''
Transport commissioner R.P. Rai pleads ignorance on the issue: ``I live in the New Delhi area. Every day, I travel to the Old Secretariat and back. I have not gone to the Delhi Bypass area. I am not aware of the problem. Please give me at least 10 days to study the problem.''
Special commissioner (transport) M.P. Tyagi, however, has a solution up his sleeve. ``The road is crammed now because of the ongoing fruit season. The trucks carrying fruit from Himachal and Jammu & Kashmir block the traffic. A separate approach to the Azadpur subzi mandi would probably help. But such schemes require coordination from other departments like the DDA and PWD.''
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