Driving on wrong carriageway a problem that plagues Delhi-NCR

The deaths of six people in Ghaziabad on Tuesday brought back the attention of traffic police and enforcement agencies in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) to an issue that has long plagued these cities-motorists travelling on the wrong side of the road. 

Soon after the accident, traffic police in cities such as Noida and Ghaziabad sprung into action to check violators.

Some of the commuters HT spoke to said violations were common along most high-speed stretches, and stressed that things should not come to a point where it takes people to die before stringent traffic rules are enacted or enforced. Road safety experts echoed similar sentiments, and said that the problem was often of both road design and civic sense.

"Human lives cannot be this cheap that simple things like traffic law enforcement are ignored," said Sanjeev Mishra, a chartered accountant and a resident of east Delhi's Mayur Vihar.

Six members of a family on their way to a temple in Rajasthan from Meerut were killed and two others injured when their private vehicle collided head-on with a speeding bus driving on the wrong side on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway in Ghaziabad on Tuesday. The bus used the wrong side of the carriageway for 7.2km before crashing into the vehicle. "I live close to the DME and see rampant traffic violations. People find it easier to blame authorities but there also needs to be some civic sense," added Mishra.

Permanent solution needed

By all accounts, instances of speeding, driving on the wrong side, and roadside parking are common on DME and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), making these high-speed roads risk-prone in the Ghaziabad area.