New Delhi: Barapullah Phase-III is testing Delhiites’ patience to the limit. The daily crawl is getting on their nerves, with frustrated commuters repeatedly tagging traffic police while asking for a fix.
It said traffic towards Barapullah/Ring Road was heavy and slow and that motorists should instead use alternative routes towards NH-24/DND Flyway. Traffic from Phase-III was also being diverted towards NH-24/DND to ease the pressure at Barapullah junction.
They said men in uniform were present at merging points and were regulating traffic, while blaming an unlikely ‘culprit’: Google Maps. The app was not reflecting the live congestion and continued showing the route as ‘green’, encouraging more motorists to enter a stretch that was already brimming with vehicles, according to them. Traffic officers have started responding to the barrage of complaints, tweet by tweet, explaining why the bottleneck keeps choking up traffic. Their explanation, however, seems to be offering little comfort. The problem is structural, and there is no definite long-term solution in place yet. This time, traffic police responded directly, explaining the reasons behind the snarl, tweet by tweet. The most telling response came when traffic police issued an advisory asking motorists to avoid the corridor.
The chaos started almost immediately after Phase III opened Sept 29. Hundreds of motorists entered the corridor believing in the promised 15-minute journey between Mayur Vihar Phase-1 and INA. Instead, many found themselves crawling for an hour or even two. The corridor went from inauguration mode to investigation mode in barely a week.