Is Modi On A Mission To Fool People? Chaos, Thefts, Accidents Mar Eastern Peripheral Expressway
The ‘smart highway’ is giving nightmares to truckers who are left stranded due to the absence of signages and no cops to man traffic.
The under-construction Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with much fanfare in a haste barely 10 days ago is giving nightmares to commuters. The 135-km road touted as the country’s first “smart highway” is fast turning into a chaos.
A Hindustan Times report highlights that all is not right with the expressway. Besides roadblocks at several places, the stretch is prone to accidents and thefts too.
Here is how the expressway projected as Modi government’s Ache Din model is actually functioning:
1) Trucks get stuck around loops on the Meerut Road as they can’t find a way to get on to the expressway. No traffic police and signage add to the truckers’ woes.
2) Truckers are confused whether the loop leading towards Palwal on the Delhi-Meerut highway was even operational.
3) Truckers spotted driving on the wrong side as the exit towards Dasna was closed “for construction”.
4) No traffic official or guard to manage traffic.
5) On NH-24, trucks in a queue keep honking.
6) The lack of adequate lighting at several points has also turned the 135-km road unsafe.
7) Seven members of a family were killed and nine others were injured in an accident on the expressway at Palwal.
8) Several sections are still under construction. Drivers are at a risk of colliding into cement boulders used as barricades.
9) Senior officials of the National Highways Authority of India told HT that barely a week after the inauguration of the road, solar panels—that will power street lights on the EPE—installed in certain pockets were stolen.
10) Even the generators have been stolen.