70km/hr new speed limit on NH9
Traffic police say limit on other highway stretches in Delhi may be revised too
NEWDELHI: The speed limit on the National Highway 24 (Delhimeerut Expressway) in Delhi has been raised from 60 km/hr to 70 km/hr for all light motorised vehicles, excluding three seater auto-rickshaw (TSR), Delhi Traffic Police said on Wednesday.
The same speed limit may eventually be fixed for all other highway stretches in the national capital, police said.
The decision comes on a day when the traffic police cancelled 1.4 lakh challans issued for speeding on NH24 (NH9) — between Millennium Park and Ghazipur — since August. The traffic police are also in talks with the transport department to explore ways to refund the money of those who have already paid the fines for speeding.
The new speed limit applies to all cars and two-wheelers, but the speed limit of 40 km/hr for all transport vehicles will continue to remain, said Anjitha Chepyala, deputy commissioner of police (traffic).
The DCP said the decision to increase the limit – passed through an order under the Delhi Police Act - was taken in view of the discrepancy in the speed limit fixed by the traffic police’s in its speed detection cameras and the signboards set up by the NHAI on the highway.
“We have decided to go by the limit set by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI),” said Chepyala.
The officer said an exercise to check the feasibility of increasing speed limits on all other national highways in the national capital will be taken up. Most of these highways have speed limits of 50 or 60 km/hr. If the traffic police decide to increase the limit, it will be at least 70 km/hr, in keeping with the minimum limit set by the NHAI for highways, she said.
The traffic police on Tuesday had said that they were withdrawing all the 1.4 lakh challans issued to motorists who were caught on camera “violating” the speed limit on the NH 24 from August this year. The vehicle owners were informed about ‘speeding’ via text messages.
“The police’s notification had 60 km/hr as the speed limit. But the signboards set up by the civic agencies had 70 km/hr as the limit. This led to issuing of challans even if a vehicle was travelling below 70 km/hr. Many prosecuted motorists had raised this issue and said they were following the law. So, we had a re-look and decided to cancel the challans,” said another senior officer.
“While most such challans which were pending in court have been cancelled by us, we are trying to identify the motorists who have already paid the penalty,” said the officer.
“We are taking up the issue of refund with the transport department which receives all the traffic penalty money collected from the court,” said the officer.
While there is no provision in the law to refund the money, the traffic police will be requesting the transport commissioner to consider the refund. “It should be doable,” said the officer.
In Delhi’s residential colonies, the speed limit is 30km/hr while for national highways passing through the city, the speed limit ranges from 50km/hr to 70 km/ hr. The speed limit on other roads ranges from 50 km/hr to 70 km/ hr, according to the Delhi traffic police.
Earlier, RP Singh, general manager (Tech)/project director at the NHAI Ghaziabad Project Implementation Unit (PIU), which looks after the Delhimeerut expressway, had told news agency PTI that the NHAI will soon be writing to the Delhi police to increase the speed limits on the Delhi-meerut expressway from 70 for light motor vehicles and 40 kmph for goods carrier to 120kmph and 100kmph, respectively.