New vistas on Sikandra Road

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI, AUG. 21. One of the shortest yet most important thoroughfares of the Capital -- Sikandra Road -- is all set to don the appearance of an airport runway by night.

The Delhi traffic police's new plan envisages installation of luminous, reflective bollards along the middle yellow line to segregate traffic flow on the perennially busy road. Wiser from experience, the police this time round are using ``epoxy'' solution, a kind of glue, for affixing the bollards permanently to the ground. This adhesive also finds extensive use on airstrips.

Says the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), New Delhi Range, Mr Arun Kampani: ``The scheme has been devised to ensure that there are no violations of the middle line. The bollards are about two feet high and each orange piece has a number of horizontal reflecting strips which glow brightly at night.''

Since the road has witnessed several serious accidents, including one in which the Public Relations Officer of the Delhi police, Mr Ravi Pawar, was seriously injured and two of his companions in a car were killed in a head-on collision with a bus not long ago, a need was felt to regulate traffic on this accident-prone thoroughfare.

As part of the plan, bollards have been kept at a distance of about five metres on the road, with the concentration going up at places where motorists have a tendency to take a right turn against the flow of traffic.

Iron studs would also be placed on the road here to slow down the traffic flow. These studs -- similar to those embedded on Kamal Ataturk Marg outside the Prime Minister's 7 Race Course Road residence -- would guide the traffic as also slow it down by acting as speed-breakers. Together the reflective bollards and studs would provide the avenue a very bright look, especially at night.

What's more, Mr. Kampani adds, the bollards would remain fixed to the ground and a vehicle-hit would not knock them off. The bollards, believed to be unbreakable, have been tested for endurance by the traffic police by driving medium vehicles over them.

The advantage of having the bollards is that they do not permanently segregate the two sides of the road and thus provide flexibility in controlling traffic when there is need to increase the flow from one side. Such bollards have been widely tested and tried in many developed countries.

Sikandra Road of late has also benefited from the installation of a high mastlight at the Mandi House roundabout. The 30-metre-tall light put up by NDMC has illuminated the entire area and also reduced accidents in the vicinity.

After Sikandra Road, Sardar Patel Marg is expected to be the next beneficiary of the traffic police's new scheme of things since the traffic flow there has been affected in a big way by the construction of an interchange at Dhaula Kuan. Traffic officials say the routes of chartered buses have already been rescheduled through Shanti Path and Moti Bagh.

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