Diesel cab drivers’ stir Day II: Traffic thrown out of gear

Hundreds of diesel cab drivers after the Supreme Court’s order continued their protest near Shiv Murti on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway which gave rise to a major traffic jam again on Tuesday morning. The protest commenced from the toll office situated at the entrance of Gurgaon where the protestors had gathered in huge numbers.

Shouting slogans against the Delhi government the protestors moved towards Mahipalpur after the police and the reserve police dispersed the demonstrators.

The protestors at first had decided to carry this protest peacefully, following which they parked their diesel taxis on the Mahipalpur flyover which leads to the Indra Gandhi International Airport. The traffic on this flyover had its cascading effects in as far as Noida and South Delhi. In no time, hundreds of vehicles were caught up on both sides of the roads. Meanwhile, since the protest had started during peak office hours, commuters working in the industrial area who take their routine route from Gurgaon to Kapasera were stranded at the Gurgaon-Delhi Expressway.

A similar protest on the DND Flyway affected traffic between Noida and Delhi from 9 am to 10.30 am, resulting in vehicular congestion on the Yamuna bridge. Taking note of the situation, the DND management and Noida Police diverted many motorists towards Kalindi Kunj. Both Gurgaon and Delhi traffic police had given traffic advisories on social websites. As part of an advisory, the Delhi traffic police tweeted, “Obstruction in traffic in both carriageways from Dhaula Kuan towards Gurgaon due to demonstration by taxi drivers near Rajokari Border. Traffic will remain heavy from Radisson Hotel, Mahipalpur towards Gurgaon due to demonstration by taxi drivers. Kindly avoid the stretch.”

Following the advisory from the Delhi Police, the commuters having no other choice had to take a detour from Kapasera back to Gurgaon. The idea of taking the alternative routes within Gurgaon to reach Kapasera (Delhi) resulted in further chaos. Massive traffic jams at Shankar Chowk, Trident Hotel Road, Palam Vihar and Old DLF Road were seen. Its effects were felt all the way till RTR Flyover and Shankar Vihar in Delhi, and Rajokri in Gurgaon.

The daily lives of Gurgaon’s citizens were disrupted when parents had to come, pick up their wards at Rajokri, because the school busses couldn’t take the Expressway.

“I have come here leaving my office to pick 5 kids because the school’s bus conductor called saying that they won’t be taking the Expressway. For the past two days I have been coming to Rajokri to pick up mine and others kids,” said Sumit Gupta.

The Joint Commissioner of Police, Sharad Aggarwal said: “We tried to reason out with them saying their protest was causing hardships to people and this wasn’t fair. We told them that if they had issues with any judicial ruling, they must talk to the government.”

According to the police, some of the drivers accepted the reasoning and took away their taxis. Those who refused to do so were taken to a police station and their taxis were impounded.

A crane deployed by the highway operator to clear the blockade was forcibly stopped by the agitators. Finally, after repeated appeals to the taxi drivers went in vain, police officers physically removed the vehicles after breaking their windows.