#Noida’s Unruly Traffic Gives Jitters to Commuters, Police

NEW DELHI: The satellite city of Noida has become a nightmare to commuters as fatal accidents have become almost a daily occurrence.

The apathy shown by the authorities to come up with proper road layouts and the inability of police to crackdown on motorists flouting traffic rules has increased the number of mishaps.

Yamuna Expressway, which connects Greater Noida and Agra, is one of the most accident-prone spots in the city.

Noida has in all some 232 intersections and the 118-member-strong traffic police force leaves many intersections unmanned.

The result is rampant violation of traffic rules leading to accidents. Last year, around 171 people died in accidents and this year 57 people have been killed so far.

According to SP (Traffic) Rajiv Narayan Mishra, there are 10 highly accident prone spots across the city.

As per the report, Jewar intersection is the deadliest of these — till now 11 persons have lost their life at the intersection, which is also the country’s longest six-lane expressway.

Including Jewar, 46 people died in different road accidents this year at Morni City Centre-Sector 24, Sector 62, Jhajar Road, Expressway Phase 2, Mumra Chowk, Bhagal, Sector 63, 60 and Mahamaya Flyover.

Mishra, who has been doing his utmost to spread awareness among the commuters, said, “The understaffed Traffic Department is a major challenge for us. To solve this, we are moving towards automation with the success of Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) plan. “We should not be compared to Delhi which has at least two-three police personnel for every intersection. With the (limited) number we also have to manage Greater Noida”.

“The ITMS has been very successful and we are planning to expand it. To deal with this, the Police Department is deploying officials at major intersections during peak hours, and at times, extend their duty hours to control traffic,” Mishra said. “Under the jurisdiction of the Noida Traffic Police comes the first toll plaza and there we issue speeding tickets to at least 30 vehicle every day, this is through hi-tech CCTV cameras put in place on the key strategic points on the entire expressway” he said.

While Noida grows in leaps and bounds, the unruly traffic remains an eye sore to commuters as well as the authorities.

The rapid industrialisation of the city has created a dangerous traffic situation and this is going to worsen as the Noida extension is coming up which is going to put extra burden on the city, with more vehicles set to ply the roads.

Danger Zone

■ 232 intersections

■ 118 traffic police force

■ 10 accident prone spots

■ 57 deaths so far in 2015