Now, some relief at Ashram as Metro removes barricades
NEW DELHI: Commuters crossing the perpetually jammed Ashram intersection will finally breathe a sigh of relief as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has removed barricades and cleared up road space for the smooth movement of traffic.
Senior DMRC officials said that the remaining sections that were closed for traffic were thrown open for regular traffic movement from June 16.
In the last leg of the project, barricades were removed from the middle of the Mathura Road. However, portions of the Ring Road, which was used for traffic coming from Lajpat Nagar and going towards New Friends Colony and for commuters going from New Friends Colony towards South Extension, were barricaded.
“The final set of barricades has also been removed and the road space has been freed up,” said a senior DMRC official.
He said that only certain sections along the pavements have been blocked for designing the Metro’s multimodal integrated lanes, but these barricades will not affect traffic movement.
Though the road space has been cleared by the DMRC, the Delhi Traffic Police will now have to work on a traffic plan for the intersection.
Traffic officials said that they will study the new road design before chalking out a traffic movement plan. It remains to be seen if traffic movement pattern will be restored the way it was before the Metro work began. If this cannot be done some alterations will be made.
“The traffic movement has become smoother, but we will have to study it for a few days. If there are no major hiccups during peak hours, then we will continue with the same plan. Else, we will suggest some alterations,” said a senior traffic official.
The Metro officials, however, said that after the development of the road some of the lanes will witness faster traffic movement. They suggested that along these lanes, the signal timing may be altered to clear the snarls.
According to traffic police, the Ashram intersection witnesses a traffic volume of around three lakh vehicles during peak hours every day, making it the second busiest stretch in the national capital after the ITO intersection.