4

Nov

JAMS ADDING TO MERCURIAL  AQI RISE LEADING TO CHAOS!

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Avinash Singh 

TIME TO MOVE COMMERCIAL 
TOLL PLAZAS; PLANNING SERIOUSLY FOR TRUCK LANES AND REIN IN FRIEGHT VEHICLES!

New Delhi I Wednesday I November 04, 2026

My friend and fellow journalist Nona Walia posted a picture of one of the expressways touching Delhi where the AQI is hovering in the vicinity of 500. I'm posting a few more from Ghazipur border on Meerut-Delhi Expressway, where long jams are always the order of the day!  AQI at one point where I got caught today was over 465! I am told it crossed 500.

All these years our Governments in Delhi -- the State as well as the Centre -- have been finding scapegoat in Punjab farmers burning ????  stubble. Have we ever thought how much pollution would be caused in jams at Gurugram, Noida, Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur tolls meant for commercial vehicles! 

And how many times in last one year  has Delhi CM Rekha 'Goofta'  promised to move at least four commercial toll gates where terrific traffic jams are a perennial issue, to other places. The promises have been unequivocally repeated by Dr Pankaj Kumar Singh and Ashish Sood,  Ministers for Transport and Urban Affairs respectively. 

Parvesh Verma, the PWD Minister,  who has an eye for the CM seat,  upstaging Ms Rekha Gupta, too has been promising the shift. He is planning an encore of what his father Sahib Singh Verma did to Madan Lal Khurana in Delhi in 1990s, but failed to deliver after grabbing the saddle.

As the crow flies Delhi border is 60 metres from where I stay. But the toll on Meerut-Delhi Expressway is over 2.5 kms by road  via a U-Turn from Khora underpass.  Jams, both in left lane (that can take you to Murga Mandi,  Mayur Vihars, Noida and Greater Noida) and fast lane to Delhi for past few days have been extending to almost 3 kms. In fact, the chaos in the centre lane is more pronounced!

On Oct 31, 2026, on the eve of the India Bloc rally, UP cops  started directing people against the flow of traffic to Delhi from Khora. It was probably to discourage motorists going to to Delhi. On Saturday cops had reasons and instructions! 

Today's mismanagement at the toll by private operators, contractors raising new rumbler speed breakers and those given lane marking contracts were the reasons for the jam that lasted for nearly three and a half hours! And what did this hold up do to add to the pollution? AQI was all-time high for  this season. 

Interestingly every fourth vehicle on roads today are freight carriers. Mini trucks with four wheeler have been increasing their trunk size in league with 'terrafic' cops, more busy in challaning than managing traffic. 

Time for the Delhi Government to shift toll nakas for commercial vehicles to other places and Centre to start seriously thinking of having dedicated truck lanes. Time for all district chiefs to deploy traffic managers during 'छुट्टी hours' at schools. 

Putting sprinklers in VIP areas is not a solution from pollution problem. Judiciously managing traffic,  hawkers exceeding limits in illegally occupying public areas, better control over ever-increasing Weekly Bazars may provide the answer!

(Prof Avinash Singh is a veteran journalist and Media Guru)

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