The Hindu : New Delhi News : A death trap

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 14, 2006
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New Delhi

New Delhi

A death trap

insidedelhi

A death trap

Delhi in the past few years has seen a transformation in its road infrastructure. The coming up of a number of flyovers and closure of cuts on the central verge of many roads elsewhere have helped in ensuring a smooth flow of traffic in most parts of the city. However, while all this has made for comfortable and safer travel despite the marked increase in the number of vehicles, newer challenges have emerged due to lack of proper policing.

One major problem that has cropped up now is drivers paying scant regard to the rules in order to shorten their travel.

Many a time, people are seen driving the vehicles on the wrong side of the road -- as is the case on National Highway-24 between U.P. Gate border and Ghazipur Crossing and also between Mother Dairy Crossing and Akshardham Crossing.

This poses a grave threat to the security of vehicles moving in the right direction as vehicles coming in the wrong direction take them by surprise. Moreover, at places like Akshardham Crossing it is most often trucks of private contractors deployed on Metro construction work that are to blame. Because of them, the slip road near the Shri Oil Filling Station becomes a virtual death trap at night.

Then at many places in the city people tend to cross over the central verge of roads through small openings -- which most often are created by nearby residents. Be it the base of the Akshardham Setu flyover opposite Mavilla Apartments at Mayur Vihar in East Delhi, at the base of Britannia Chowk flyover on the Shakur Basti side of Ring Road in North West East or the newly constructed Moolchand underpass in South Delhi, the problem is rampant everywhere. It is high time the Delhi police plug these loopholes and take strict action against the violators of traffic rules.

-- Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

A free-for-all

Of late the usually spacious and comfortable parking lot on the Ajmeri Gate side of New Delhi railway station seems to have fallen victim to the malaise of parking problems.

A friend went to the railway station to receive a guest on Monday and was looking to park his vehicle in the general parking lot. He was made to wait for at least 15 minutes in the queue before he could reach the entry point of the parking lot.

While earlier he suspected that he had to wait due to a huge rush with many trains reaching Delhi in quick succession around 11-30 a.m., he found that the reason for the delay actually was blockage of one-half of the entry point which is originally wide enough for two vehicles to get in easily. A posse of five men stood surrounding the makeshift ticket counter but none seemed interested in lending a helping hand to motorists.

When the friend asked the man issuing him tickets about the half-blocked exit, there was no reply.

Inside the parking area, there was not a single attendant to guide the motorists and they were left to fend for themselves. Consequently, it was a free-for-all with motorists parking their vehicles at odd angles making it impossible for the vehicles already parked to move out.

Having found a parking space in the next 15 minutes, the friend went about his job. When he returned, he was lucky to find a clear route on his way out.

At the exit, while handing over the parking slip, he questioned the attendants -- there were more than three of them loitering around the makeshift counter -- about the confusion and was told that the private contractor had fled and the management of the parking lot was now "in the hands of the Government".

When he mentioned that it should not be a reason for bad management, they laughed and asked him to make way for another vehicle.

-- Prashant Pandey

Bandhs and beyond

Two peaceful "Delhi bandhs" in a row by traders this past week in protest against the sealing drive targeting illegal commercial establishments in residential areas have proved that anti-social and unscrupulous elements had hijacked the earlier two trade bandhs in the city, first on September 20, in which four people were killed in police firing, and then on November 1.

But since the Municipal Corporation of Delhi resumed the sealing drive on November 8 after the Supreme Court refused to grant relief to traders on petitions filed by the Centre and the civic body, the traders have not dared to physically disrupt the drive or disturb normal life in the Capital.

Heavy deployment of police and paramilitary forces across the city ensured that the affected traders and their employees did not resort to violence or disturbed normal life.

Besides blaming politicians and their supporters for violence in the city during the last two bandhs, residents feel it was the nexus between the government and the police that resulted in the situation getting out of hand, causing damage to property worth crores of rupees.

— Sandeep Joshi

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