New Delhi: On Wednesday morning, Akhilesh had barely crossed Indirapuram when the red brake lights ahead came to a standstill. Cars on NH-9 towards Delhi were stuck bumper to bumper, while bikers squeezed through narrow gaps. For nearly half an hour, his vehicle barely moved.“After a point, drivers just started nudging into whatever space they could find,” said an exasperated Akhilesh.Ongoing civil work on NH-9, which connects Ghaziabad, Indirapuram and east Delhi, one of the capital’s busiest entry corridors, has significantly narrowed a 1.5-km stretch near the Ghazipur border. With two lanes barricaded by safety cones, traffic is being squeezed into a tight bottleneck during peak hours, turning the daily commute into a crawl.“First they were repairing the Delhi-to-Noida side, and now it’s the Delhi-bound stretch,” said Arshdeep, another commuter. “During peak hours, the jam easily adds 45 minutes to the journey every day.”Videos circulating online showed endless queues of vehicles trapped on the highway, with commuters complaining about the lack of visible traffic personnel and diversion signage.One commuter posted online: “A long jam has been ongoing on the Ghazipur-to-Delhi route due to road repairs. People have been stuck for hours and traffic is extremely slow. Due to the lack of basic management, the situation has become even more difficult.”Another user wrote: “Road repairs are underway on the Ghazipur-to-Delhi stretch, and people are stuck in massive traffic jams. If there had been proper management, officials could have deployed personnel, put up signboards and created a fast-moving lane. But everyone has simply accepted the jam as part of daily life.”Meanwhile, traffic officials said an advisory regarding the repair work was already issued two days ago. According to the advisory, commuters travelling between Ghaziabad and Delhi are likely to face congestion over the coming weeks as NHAI is undertaking maintenance and carpeting work on the NH-9 stretch connecting Ghaziabad to Sarai Kale Khan.Lane restrictions have been imposed on parts of the carriageway, and the work is expected to continue till June. The authorities have advised commuters to avoid the stretch where possible and use NH-24 as the alternative route. “We have already tried easing toll traffic to an extent, but this is civil work and our hands are tied too,” a traffic official said.There was no immediate response from NHAI when contacted.
