To ease commute, GMDA plans traffic lights at two key junctions

GURUGRAM: In order to ease traffic woes at two of the city’s busiest junctions, Hero Honda Chowk and MDI Chowk, GMDA has invited bids for the installation of traffic lights at these places. However, with two flyovers being recently developed at these intersections, the need for traffic lights raises a question over the administration’s planning at the initial stage.
At Hero Honda Chowk, an underpass and a flyover, built at a cost of Rs 138 crore, have eased problems for long-route traffic. “The traffic is smooth while going to or coming from Manesar, but taking a turn towards Sector 10 under the flyover is still cumbersome due to merging vehicles and non-availability of signals,” said Aman Chawla, a city resident.
Traffic experts say while the underpass and the flyover have helped in reducing congestion, there are still issues at Hero Honda Chowk due to the movement of vehicles in multiple directions. “As per my understanding, the traffic lights are being installed to streamline the traffic at the junction, which still sees some haphazard movement,” said Sewa Ram of School of Planning and Architecture.
The situation is worst at MDI Chowk. According to MCG sources, the original plan was to build a flyover for traffic coming from Atul Katria Chowk and going towards Signature Towers. However, the plan was later tweaked and the flyover was instead built for the traffic coming from Sukhrali and going towards Atul Kataria Chowk.
The last-minute changes at the junction have made the situation worse, causing the need for a traffic signal at the junction. “A study showed that maximum traffic flows from Atul Kataria Chowk towards Signature Towers. This is because a large number of people from Old Gurugram coming towards New Gurugram use Atul Kataria Chowk and MDI Chowk. That was the reason why it was decided to build the flyover in that direction but later on, on the instruction of some bureaucrats, the direction was changed,” said a senior MCG official.
Despite repeated attempts, GMDA’s mobility chief RK Gandhi could not be contacted.