It takes only 30% of traffic either way

NEW DELHI: The traffic police is at its wit's end in dealing with the RTR mess. From reversing the traffic flow on the flyover to making it two-way, it has exhausted virtually all its options with little relief. Now, going by the volume of traffic, it is generally one-way towards NH-8 during the day and one-way towards IIT at night, particularly during peak hours.The delay in constructing a new parallel flyover has only added to its woes.
The flyover has proved to be a nuisance right from the beginning as it caters to only 30% of the total traffic flow from either side, the rest of the vehicles
move on Outer Ring Road, undermining the purpose of the flyover. This causes congestion on the approach to the flyover and results in severe jams on adjoining roads.
As a damage control measure, they tried turning the flyover into one-way towards Gurgaon during the morning peak hours and towards IIT gate in the evening. The process involved erecting concrete barricades at the entry points to stop vehicles from travelling on the flyover
. Jams ensued as heavy vehicles were barred from travelling on
the flyover.
"Heavy vehicles ply on Outer Ring Road below the flyover and join vehicles on the flyover near Basant village. This leads to jams as there is no merging space here. The situation is similar on the other side near the Army Referral Hospital," said an officer.
Officers say the problems have increased since the Gurgaon toll plaza
was removed last year
. There has been a 20% rise in traffic here on this stretch
since then. Things go horribly wrong if a vehicle breaks down on the flyover as even towaway cranes can't be used due to the limited space.
Traffic officials say they had also suggested ways to reduce traffic on RTR flyover by shifting it to the surrounding feeder roads. Plans were made to divert some vehicles towards the airport to through Nelson Mandela Marg towards
the Mehrauli-Mahipalpur Road. It was, however, found that the road does not have the required width to allow the diversion
. A plan to construct a bypass from Mehrauli-Mahipalpur Road to NH-8 also did not work out as road-widening projects were stalled after objections by green bodies.