Ghaziabad: National Highways Authority of India has identified 110 unauthorised access points on a 20km stretch of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway-NH9 composite between UP Gate and Dasna in a Supreme Court-ordered survey.The court on April 13 sought a comprehensive report from NHAI after taking suo motu cognisance of the deaths of 34 people in successive road accidents on Nov 2 and 3 last year in Rajasthan’s Phalodi district and Rangareddy in Telangana.Terming the accidents “systemic negligence and catastrophic infrastructure failures that led to these inevitable casualties”, SC said it was an “infringement on the right to safe passage and dereliction of statutory duty by authorities”.In its interim order, the court also directed authorities to come up with a report to stop illegal parking on highways. “In line with the court’s order, NHAI carried out a survey of DME and NH-9. On both sides of the road, these illegal accesses have been created by shops, showrooms, petrol pumps, hotels and also colleges. We have a complete list of these establishments,” said an NHAI officer.
Massive traffic chaos at Delhi’s Ghazipur toll plaza during toll collection despite 14 lane NH-9 and how come truck entering in morning time
NHAI has issued notices to these establishments under Section 26 of Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002. “Demolition will take place if encroachers do not comply with the notice,” the officer said.The court in its order said no heavy or commercial vehicle “shall park/stop on any national highway carriageway or paved shoulder except at a designated bay, lay-by, or wayside amenity”.There is, however, widespread violation of this on DME. Scores of trucks and smaller goods carriers remain parked on the expressway all evening and night as they wait to enter Delhi just ahead of the MCD toll, not just endangering motorists but also choking the expressway.Trucks parked on highways have claimed many lives, yet the practice is ubiquitous. Drivers of trucks headed out of Delhi regularly park on the DME and NH9 flyovers at Ghazipur at night for a meal or to rest. Neither NHAI nor police have been proactive in addressing this danger.“Heavy vehicles parked on highways are one of the most frequent causes of accidents. On DME itself, such fatal accidents have been reported. SC’s direction covers all aspects of causes of accidents on national and state highways across the country by invoking Article 21 of the Constitution,” said lawyer Vikrant Sharma.DME is access-controlled and has just six points from where it can be accessed. But lack of enforcement and motorist behaviour have combined to make it accident-prone. For example, DME’s entry points, especially the one at Akshardham in Delhi for Sarai Kale Khan-bound traffic, are regularly used as exits by delinquent drivers, who move against high-speed traffic flow, putting their own lives and that of others in danger. It’s a practice that police have allowed to fester rather than crack the whip with stiff fines and other stringent measures like suspension of licence.SC has also directed removal of dhabas and any structure that encroaches into right of way on any national highway with immediate effect, besides making it mandatory for licence renewals of establishments within highway safety zones conditional on NHAI and public works department (PWD) approval. It has ordered dedicated surveillance teams of police and transport department personnel to be constituted for regular national highway patrolling to supplement NHAI’s own route patrolling vehicles.Asked about steps it has taken to stop truck parking on the highway, the NHAI officer said, “Parking comes under the ambit of the traffic department of police and the transport department. NHAI can only provide assistance in this regard. The court order has made state police, transport department and district administration stakeholders in this, which means that they are as accountable as NHAI now.”On NH9, illegal parking is not restricted to trucks. At Sector 62, Chijarsi and Dasna, three-wheelers and buses park right on the highway to pick up passengers. In Ghaziabad, 1,097 road accidents took place in 2025, in which 400 people lost their lives while 849 were injured. Around 35% of these accidents took place on national and state highways.
