New Delhi: A few vehicles move, while a few others wait. Barricades hold back the rest, as traffic personnel decide how much of the queue gets to inch ahead.Two weeks after its inauguration, traffic personnel are manning the entrance to Barapullah Phase III, allowing vehicles onto the corridor in a regulated trickle to prevent congestion further along the stretch.Inaugurated on Sept 29 after nearly 12 years of construction, the elevated corridor was expected to significantly make the journey from Mayur Vihar to AIIMS quicker, cutting travel time from around 45 minutes to just 15. Two weeks later, while traffic is being released in a planned manner, commuters continue to encounter slow-moving queues at the entry point.At the entrance, barricades regulate the flow of vehicles arriving from east Delhi. Those willing to wait can join the queue, while others can turn left and take alternative routes via NH-24 or DND Flyway. Traffic personnel are stationed along the approach to alert motorists about congestion ahead and suggest alternative routes. What might have looked like a temporary response to the opening-day rush has become a familiar feature of the corridor’s entry point.Officials said the measure was introduced to stop congestion from building up further along the stretch, rather than merely holding up traffic at the entrance. Compounding the problem, Google Maps continues to depict Barapullah Phase III as relatively clear even when traffic ahead is severely congested. Motorists relying on the app are consequently drawn towards the corridor, adding to the inflow. The problem is particularly pronounced during the morning peak, which officials said can stretch from 9am to 1pm.Regulating entry, officials said, helps prevent more vehicles from feeding into an already congested stretch. For commuters, however, the reasoning behind the queue does little to change the experience.One commuter captured the frustration online, writing: “High-speed corridor moving at 5 km/h. Spent 40 mins crawling 3 km on the newly opened Mayur Vihar–AIIMS stretch. Merging this straight into the Barapullah bottleneck isn’t traffic planning, it’s a cruel joke on daily commuter.”And that is the irony two weeks after the inauguration. Barapullah Phase III is beginning to find a rhythm, but the journey to a genuinely faster commute remains a work in progress.
