Ghaziabad: The year of diversion, detour and long delay ended for passengers traveling to Delhi through the gate as Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) opened for the first time since the last week of November 2020 when farmers’ agitation began.
But while the elevated part of DME and NH-9 on the gate and the serving of NH-9 under the flyover next to the MCD toll road opened for Delhi’s bound traffic, the police barricade still uses the Ghaziabad-bound line of traffic under the flyover, extending Wait back to normal.
A police officer Delhi said the barricade was gradually removed.
“Except for Delhi to the Ghaziabad NH9 side, we have removed the barricade for the traffic movement to continue and the remaining ones will be removed in one or two days,” the official said without considering the reason for it.
The last batch of farmers was cleaned from the upward gate on Wednesday, after that the path for Delhi Inbound traffic, where the protesters camped for more than a year, opened.
The drive is still not as smooth as the structure that has not been dismantled near the entry to DME in Khora.
The National Highway Authority India checked the NH-9 and concluded that there was “insignificant” damage.
“Except for small cracks in the elevated part of the NH9 in Ghaziabad to Delhi’s side, there was no significant damage.
We were in a position to open NH9 completely after Delhi police removed the barricade under the flyover on the NH-9 for Delhi-Ghaziabad traffic , “said Arvind Kumar, an NHAI official.
The vehicle movement on DME is light on Thursday.
“Even though we have placed the traffic police at the intersection to guide commuters to DME, not many are aware of developments and when commuter knows it, we hope the traffic movement to continue with a full flow in one or two days,” said Ramanand Kushwaha, Traffic SP , Ghaziabad.
Confusion caused several vehicles to the toll road that was controlled by access to the NH-9 line for city traffic and turned to the wrong side near the MCD toll road on the exit through the entry.
But for many commuters, a straight trip on Thursday to Sarai Kale Khan relief.
“We really forgot how it felt driving in DME, so when I arrived at Akshardham from Indirapuram in 15 minutes, it was a different experience at all,” said Ashish Kumar, a lawyer and resident of Indirapuram.
Sadanand Singh, a local resident, added, “After months, I went to Kaushambi using DME and NH9 which only took several minutes.
It takes up to an hour to get to Kaushambi throughout these months from Noida Sector 62 through CISF Road.
“