The Delhi Traffic Police has activated traffic signals at two key merging points on the old section of the Barapullah elevated corridor to manage congestion following the opening of Phase III, officials aware of the matter said on Tuesday.
The new arrangement already received sharp reactions from commuters as some criticised the traffic police for worsening the traffic situation. Traffic police are also planning to install signals at two more locations within the next fortnight: where the old Barapullah loop meets Phase III near Sun Dial Park, and where the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway joins the Ring Road near Kilokari, towards Sarai Kale Khan from Ashram Chowk . “How to make a bad thing worse – install a red light where Barapullah meets the DND with a 70-second red light and just a 20-second green. Convert what is a daily 300 metres jam to an easy 1 km traffic jam on the Barapullah that to on a public holiday,” a commuter posted on X.
Because traffic was manageable without them, the two signal poles had been installed more than three years ago but remained non-functional.
With vehicles now piling up at merging points, traffic police and other agencies identified signalisation as one of the possible solutions, the officials said.
“We have replaced the old non-functional signal lights with new ones.
The stop-wait-go timers have also been set according to the peak and non-peak hours. As of now, we are at the trial stage, the aim of which is to understand the exact waiting and moving timers that should be set,” one officer said. The two signals were activated on Sunday.
