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NEW DELHI: It is a deadly stretch of road, all 200 metres of it from the Savitri flyover to the Chirag Dilli flyover. Five young people lost their lives here in November last year, but even after a public outcry and requests by the traffic police, the government is yet to act on making it safer. All that is needed are a few traffic signs to tell drivers where to head and some pieces of railing to keep wandering pedestrians off the road. In any modern city these would have been easily put in place. But for all of seven months nothing has been done. The police took till April this year to conduct a study. Its findings and a request for urgent action have gone to the Public Works Department which has been sitting on the file. Gul Nidhi Dalmia, whose beautiful daughter Amba was among the young people who died at this stretch, wrote to joint commissioner, traffic, Maxwell Pereira saying how easily the stretch could be made safer. "This is a very serious matter. The two flyovers are close to each other. And we have a camel hump roller-coaster effect on the curve which is close to the run-up to the Chirag Dilli flyover," says Pereira. But speeding vehicles down the Savitri flyover are still in danger of running into pedestrians who cross the road through missing railings on the central verge. Less than 50 metres away is a blind curve which leaves motorists confused — whether they should go straight or take the sharp left turn. In the absence of any big signboards telling drivers that the small road leads to Sheikh Sarai on Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg and the sharp right turn would take one to the Chirag Dilli flyover, confused drivers on this busy road take sudden left or right turns. In his letter, Dalmia had stated: "The presence of a blind curve should be indicated with a large signboard." Just one very small circular board exists, which most motorists fail to notice. For those taking the right turn for the Chirag Dilli flyover, pedestrians scurrying across the road again poses a problem. While a subway is there near the flyover, there are no signboards declaring its presence. Hence it remains unused. Once again, at the base of the Chirag Dilli flyover motorists are confronted with the choice of either ascending the flyover or taking a right turn to reach Greater Kailash or Sheikh Sarai. In the absence of any overhead luminous signboard, motorists have to suddenly swerve to the left or right.
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