Delhi: Rogue drivers on wrong side arecourting danger at this underpass

NEW DELHI: It was four years ago, after missing several deadlines, that the Rs 245-cr Sarita Vihar underpass was opened, bringing south Delhi closer to Noida. It was to be an alternative and a much faster route. However, virtually nothing was done to improve the road infrastructure in Okhla, Tughlaqabad, Govindpuri and Khanpur. Road conditions have deteriorated and congestion has grown.However, what is shocking is that the traffic police seems to have disappeared from the area, leading to rampant wrong side driving in the underpass, posing a serious risk of an accident.

Going towards Noida from Okhla, you encounter a stream of vehicles from the other side — two-wheelers, rickshawas and cars — being driven quite nonchalantly on the wrong side. It’s an unnerving experience with bikes whizzing past you on both sides. The danger increases because the underpass is very dimly lit — few lights function — and the road surface is bumpy.
These vehicles are from Jasola, Sukhdev Vihar and New Friends Colony. They are driven on the wrong side in the face of oncoming traffic only to avoid taking a U turn on G B Birla Marg or Kalindi Kunj Road up ahead for entering the underpass from the other side, in the right carriageway.
A large number of them are two-wheeler riders going to Okhla from Jasola. They usually come through the traffic on Mathura Road, entering from a cut on the divider near Apollo Hospital, and drive to the exit of the underpass that opens near the Jasola metro station to enter the underpass on way to Okhla and Ma Anandamayee Marg.
“We challan people entering the underpass from the wrong side near the metro station but there are too many violators. A U-turn on the Kalindi Kunj Road has been proposed to stop this,” said a traffic police officer. Residents of Sarita Vihar’s A and B block too have been demanding a U-turn between the underpass and the Kalindi drain since the right turn into Sarita Vihar from G D Birla Road going towards Noida was closed due to congestion.
Two years back, Maheish Girri, MP for the area, took up the matter with the Union urban development ministry and a U-turn was constructed about 300 metres ahead but that has not deterred violators.
The road inside and on the way to the underpass is also in a poor condition and often waterlogged, a problem that has persisted with DDA being unable to do anything about it.
What such confusion in an underpass can lead to was witnessed last year when the occupants of a Swift Dzire car were killed after a Scorpio driving on the wrong side in a Gurgaon underpass collided head-on with them. The traffic police should address this problem quickly in order to avoid such a mishap.