Traffic continues to choke at Nizamuddin despite SC orders
NEW DELHI : Despite a Supreme Court order last year to clear the encroachment by parked vehicles outside Nizamuddin police station, private vehicles continue to illegally occupy the space, causing traffic snarls on the busy stretch of the Mathura Road and also on the connecting routes.
The movement of pedestrians on the road and the halting of auto-rickshaws and buses ferrying pilgrims to Dargah Hazrat Nizamuddin only worsens the situation, triggering jams even during the non-peak traffic hours.
In July last year, a Supreme Court bench had asked the police to remove the impounded vehicles outside the police station to ease traffic movement. While the police managed to do that, they haven’t been able to prevent the parking by private vehicles along the stretch of road outside.
The bottleneck created as a result impacts traffic movement on both the carriageways of the Mathura Road as well as the routes leading to India Gate and Lodhi Road.
A traffic police officer said that while improperly parked vehicles are frequently prosecuted and even towed away, it doesn’t end the menace as most of these car owners are first-time visitors.
“There are also the buses ferrying the pilgrims visiting the Nizamuddin Dargah, the autorickshaws scouting for these pilgrims, and the pedestrians who walk across the road instead of using a subway nearby,” said the officer.
S Velmurugan, senior principal scientist, Traffic Engineering and Safety Division, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said that regular drives need to be carried out to remove illegally parked vehicles. “As long-term solution, a separate parking space should be created for the vehicles dropping pilgrims there and those visiting the police station. The traffic police also need to deploy more personnel to regulate traffic movement,” said Velmurugan.