Flyover

PROPOSED FLYOVER AT AZAD MARKET & BARAFKHANA, RANI JHANSI ROAD, DELHI

The world over it is a known and proven fact that flyovers are not a solution to internal traffic problems in any city. Flyovers are ok only on expressways or highways. Making a flyover on a congested internal road is like loosening the waist belt to be comfortable with ones increasing obesity. It may be necessary to loosen the belt when one is overweight but it is not the solution to the problem. The ultimate solution is to check and reduce weight, i.e. manage obesity. If the weight is not checked in time and it keeps increasing then there is a limit to loosening the belt also. If a holistic approach is not taken to understand and manage the traffic, any flyover would only increase the traffic quantum, as more and more new users would be tempted to take the route, and after a certain limit and period of time the route would again choke up as there is no limit on number of vehicles. Many a recent flyover are excellent examples of the above phenomenon when the moment the traffic descends down the flyover there is a huge pile up of vehicles sometimes even over the flyover itself. Now the situation at Baraf khana and Azad market chowk: A careful observation of traffic pattern and behavior would highlight the following features: 1. 2.

There is always a traffic jam at the intersections when the automated traffic signals are not working and subsequently traffic is regulated manually. Even when the traffic signals are working, sometime there is a jam that is normally due to the slow moving traffic not adhering to the signals, either starting before the light turns green or continuing even after the lights are turned red, which results in traffic on the other sides getting accumulated.

3.

Thirdly the green lights for either side are for very large durations, which result in pile up of traffic on the red light sides, which incidentally does not have a higher holding capacity. Thus on the other side, the traffic piles up to the next intersection resulting in absolute chaos.

So if a careful and scientific traffic management system, which could include a rotary at the Barafkhana chowk, is evolved and implemented, most of the localized traffic issues would be resolved. As for a broader traffic management, a more holistic approach is needed which could include regulation on movement of different kind of traffic, different timings, stringent enforcement of basic traffic rules like lane driving, stopping at stop line etc., instead of haphazard constructions of flyovers anywhere.

Jovial Vaghela B.E. Civil