First Udiapol, and then Surajpol – both high traffic congestion areas, especially during traffic signals were successfully converted to no traffic light roundabouts, with the Surajpol experiment just having been started a couple of months ago, and facing applaud from commuters.

The same experiment, however failed at the Delhi Gate chauraha, when on observing chaos during signal lights, city administration, police and municipality agreed to establish a no signal traffic movement at Delhi Gate on similar lines a couple of weeks ago.

From the first day of the new arrangement, there was chaos at the circle and though traffic was moving, chaos was still visible.  Hence, the no signal system was abolished yesterday and signal system was resumed.  The barricade, however, are in place hence we expect that the traffic police will come up with some new idea.

We have been witnessing the commuting as per the new system and are of the view that whereas Udiapol and Surajpol roundabouts are much wider and have 5 roads and 4 roads intersecting at the juncition, Delhi Gate has 5 roads too, but with traffic coming in from 8 bylanes – being Bapu Bazar, Nehru Bazaar, Dhan Mandi and Sutharwada merging into the signal opposite Bawarchi Restaurant.  This is supposedly the main reason for the congestion and chaos.

Another reason for the Delhi Gate experiment failing, is that there is too much congestion around the Police Station which is situated within the Pol itself.  Vegetable and fruit vendors have setup up their thelas around the Police Station, which also houses a Water Dispensing unit.  All these factors have added to the chaos and have created a distress for businesses in the area, especially those facing the Police Station.

Taking care of such small matters and extending the width of the bylane which crosses between the rear side of the police station and the Taiyabiyah School premises, could probably give a chance for the experiment to succeed.

Further, with the proposal for the elevated road coming off the drawing board and the NHAI getting the green signal to go ahead, we assume that the no signal system will work for Delhi Gate as well.