[S2!!!]

Utter mis-management and mis-communication between the concerned authorities led to a massive 15 km long traffic jam on the Gurgaon-Delhi carriageway on Friday i.e. 22/05/2015. It left commuters stranded in their vehicles in the blistering summer heat in one of the worst traffic scenario that Delhi has witnessed till date.


(Image Source: mensxp)

The High court ordered to scrap the Sirhaul toll plaza on the Delhi-Gurgaon border in 2014, as it was the cause of traffic jams on the 32-lane expressway. Now, the Punjab and Haryana High court ordered that this expressway must be made 8-laned consistently. So on May 22, 2015, MCEPL (operator of the expressway) decided to barricade 24 out of 32 lanes in the peak traffic hours of the day, without any prior notice to the public. Neither the National Highways Authority of India nor the Gurgaon or Delhi Police claim to have been aware of this exercise which led to a completely chaotic traffic scenario on the expressway.

Commuters claim to have been stuck for over 5 hours in their vehicle while caught in the jam. Temperatures rising, commuters' patience going out of control, cars breaking down and the lack of lane discipline only made matters worse. A distance of 15 kms is how long the traffic jam was claimed to be.

NHAI held a meeting with the traffic police and MCEPL later on Friday, instructing them to notify the Delhi and Gurgaon Police as well as make a public announcement and display signages to inform commuters about the trial (to be held on May 26, 2015).

Source: Times of India


(Image Source: indiatimes)

(Image Source: indiatimes)


(Image Source: Tushar Ranjan)


(Image Source: Sir Criminal)

[Dry Ice]

Yesterday was a bad day for people heading to Gurgaon through NH8.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/har...h-8/84082.html
http://www.iamin.in/en/gurgaon/news/...jam-nh-8-60731
http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india...us-232877.html

While everybody is trashing Gurgaon traffic police, it emerged later that it was NHAI whose wisdom was behind this mess.

I got off lightly with a penalty of about 30-40mins when I crossed this area around 9 AM. People coming in later were stranded for as long as 2 hours and some from as far as Dhaula Kuan!

So what went wrong?
NHAI had closed multiple lanes (7 out of 11 as per news reports) of the erstwhile toll plaza to regulate traffic flow. A schematic diagram below -


But from what I observed on the ground, the problem started much before the toll plaza. As soon as the service road and the main carriageway merged, road blocks were placed in about 100-200m to segregate the traffic - those wanting to go to cybercity had to take the left arm and those wanting to proceed further ahead (to gurgaon/manesar/jaipur) had to take the right arm. This was the problem. Huge volume of traffic criss-crossing in that shot space (circled).


Here is my dash cam footage of the mess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQbIZBkiVTQ

[Aditya]

Seriously. How stupid and inconsiderate can the authorities get? Everyday there this something ridiculous happening and you think you've seen it all. But then, the very next day something else comes up that blows the previous nonsense into weeds.

Wonder how many people didn't reach the airport and how many (sadly) didn't make it to the hospital due to this unnecessary jam.

[H_Dogg72]

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[tanwaramit]

The jam was too bad. I descended Dwarka flyover towards cantt and then to reach the first signal (before Dwarka underpass), it took me 2 hours.

Its a distance of hardly 1 or 2 km, but it took me 2 hours in blistering heat. The happening at Gurgaon had an impact 15kms beyond to other roads.

Car AC was of little help. Could not use phone much to see whats the issue, thanks to the heat (see screenshot below).

Thankfully my car ran all along. Saw several cars who had given up and owners had parked the cars with bonnet open.

Took 3 hours to reach office at CP instead of 1 hr as usual time.

[amit]

Originally Posted by S2!!!

The High court ordered to scrap the Sirhaul toll plaza on the Delhi-Gurgaon border in 2014, as it was the cause of traffic jams on the 32-lane expressway. Now, the Punjab and Haryana High court ordered that this expressway must be made 8-laned consistently. So on May 22, 2015, MCEPL (operator of the expressway) decided to barricade 24 out of 32 lanes in the peak traffic hours of the day

So the Punjab & Haryana High court has ordered that only 8 out of 32 lanes will be operational because the toll plaza has been scrapped?! Ridiculous! What sort of stupid order is this? Don't the honourable judges travel on this road to realise what havoc their order would be causing? If this is going to be permanent and God help people travelling on this road. Seriously, this is nonsense and can happen only in India!

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by amit

So the Punjab & Haryana High court has ordered that only 8 out of 32 lanes will be operational because the toll plaza has been scrapped?! Ridiculous! What sort of stupid order is this? Don't the honourable judges travel on this road to realise what havoc their order would be causing? If this is going to be permanent and God help people travelling on this road. Seriously, this is nonsense and can happen only in India!

Its complicated.

Basically if 8 lanes expands into 10 and then contracts, then you will have jostling / merging issues. The core issue is that the traffic needs to choose their lane in advance - which almost no one does, and then holds up traffic.

Having said that, this expressway is 4+4 lanes on each side. I'm not sure where you got the 32 number from - that's just the toll lanes - the expressway doesn't have space for 32 lanes anywhere else

[Traveller Nayak]

For those of us who travel to Gurgaon, I am sure this one will be remembered. Remembered for long and talked about.

For me, from the Radisson flyover to Rajokri flyover it took nearly 1.30 hours. On a good day it takes just about 2-3 minutes. On a bad day (excluding this one) it takes 10-15 minutes.

I believe the issue got compounded because of no one following 'lane driving' and there being no one from NHAI or police to guide the traffic.

Everybody seemed to (rather wanted to) just move ahead without following lane discipline. Left, right and everything in between.

Thankfully all those barricades have been removed. Atleast, this is how it was at about 7.30 am today.

[aditya101]

Same day saw hell on Noida Expressway due to overturned malba truck. The ordinary NCR driver wants an uneventful ride to office and back, even if it is slow. These incidents serve up a dose of bheja fry which nobody wants.

Sadly every time such a situation happens, I have noticed driver loose their minds and change lanes, cross cross and jump thru traffic as if their cars will be blessed with divine intervention that will take them home in usual time while rest of guys suffer on the tarmac. This only adds to chaos, honking and more stress for everyone.

This incident aside I don't see NH-8 woes ending. Unlike Noida expressway, this road is really only an upgradation of an existing road. The former has an excellent slip road system and signage. I find the drive on Noida e-way much better than GGN e-way for this reason.

[Singh09]

Guys I was listening to the radio and the traffic update said that there are 2 lanes closed at the very same point which has caused a jam. Wait time might be upto 1 hour.

If that's right then I suggest that people can avoid crossing the toll for an hour or so.

[Dry Ice]

As of 9:00 am today, no road blocks in place. No congestion.

Still only about 3.5 lanes are open but there is no bottleneck as the road blocks have been removed. A few publications had reported the trial will continue on Monday. Does not seem to be the case. A few traffic constables(ggn) and a PCR was stationed on the toll plaza site today though - result of the Friday debacle?

[adi_gt]

The Bangalore guys would have managed the stress a lot better. We have our daily doses of KR Purams', Kundalhallis and Silkboards of this world. We have already achieved the level of trance where a jam which extends for 3-4 kms actually doesn't bother us. We only tend to get worried if we can overtake lorries and water tankers on 2 lane road with ease if there is no traffic on other side. This is a sure shot sign of an impending jam ahead of us which is not allowing the traffic from other side to flow.

BTW I have traveled on this stretch from Munirka to Gurgaon during 2005-2007 on bike. It was a mess then and ever since. It will continue to be because the volume of traffic is just too much. The first difference I felt when I shifted to Bangalore was that the traffic quality ( yess you heard it right - traffic quality) is far better. I mean no water tankers, no trucks, no diesel buses on this stretch atleast during office hours. Even during the construction years the dust was not of the level which KR Puram-Tin factory stretch can generate on a dry day after rain.. And don't get me wrong I love Bangalore more than Gurgaon due to many other things which can be a separate matter of discussion.

Mods - please delete if irrelevant.

[tbppjpr]

I pray we suffer more of such jams so that we people learn it hard way how important it is to maintain lane discipline. We are far-far backward country in terms of traffic sense. Other countries have traffic management courses and dedicated departments/firms which are responsible for traffic management. We lack both.

[W.A.G.7]

The picture in the first post speaks for itself. Absolutely horrid traffic jam. Unless something is done about traffic management, soon; this might be the picture in every city in the near future. What a colossal waste of fuel and pollution this jam must have caused. Not just the authorities, but it's also us, the common people who really need to think about the traffic situation seriously. Thankfully in Pune, this is not yet the situation.

[fuel_addict]

Goodness gracious me!! That is chaos at its best which must have been nightmarish for the people who had to endure this. The pictures alone give me goosebumps considering its Delhi and the heat must have further worsened the plight of the people. Getting people to follow lane discipline in India will take decades but atleast the authorities could have shown some empathy to inform people beforehand.