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new delhi: the delhi traffic police has a new plan for the lajpat nagar market area to ease congestion and parking problems. it envisages anti-clockwise vehicle movement and one-way traffic on the two main roads: feroze gandhi marg and veer savarkar marg. ‘‘the idea is to facilitate movement using left turnings. right turnings always cause problems,’’ said joint commissioner of police, traffic, maxwell pereira. according to the plan, feroze gandhi marg will be the main entry point and veer savarkar marg the exit on to lala lajpat rai marg — going to moolchand flyover. ‘‘to facilitate flow of traffic within the circular block, alternate crossroads will be made one-way. this will allow an internal anti-clockwise traffic movement along the naina devi road and the nala road,’’ pereira said. this means that traffic coming from the jangpura side can only turn right on veer savarkar marg and a similar right will be compulsory for those coming from ring road to feroze gandhi marg. coming from defence colony flyover, one will not be allowed to turn left on to veer savarkar marg, but can enter lajpat nagar market through feroze gandhi marg. the controversial right turn for traffic coming from moolchand flyover is likely to remain closed. for parking, the police plan to close one carriageway each on the two parallel roads. ‘‘this is in addition to the two official parking lots already available. if this plan is implemented, we will approach the mcd to effect engineering changes to make the carriageways fixed parking lots,’’ pereira said. this means haphazard parking in front of shops will have to go. ‘‘the only weak link here is that the ‘residential areas near the crossroads will see more traffic. but the character of lajpat nagar is one of residential areas having developed into commercial complexes,’’ he said. residents, however, are sceptical of the plan. ‘‘it appears a hopeless situation here. the best option would be to prevent all outside traffic from entering, but that is impossible since it would mean that residents also will have to park outside,’’ said vikas juneja, an architect and resident of lajpat nagar-iii. ‘‘as it is, one carriageway on each of the parallel roads is used for parking. there is hardly any place to walk, leave alone drive. until illegal parking is curbed, the experiment is unlikely to bear fruit,’’ he said. b s dhir, a retired government officer and resident of lajpat nagar-iii, however, is more optimistic. ‘‘it will ease the traffic congestion considerably. there is utter chaos with traffic running both ways, especially with the parking disarray,’’ he said. even if that means travelling a bit more to enter or leave the market? ‘‘yes,’’ he said. ‘‘blocking the cut at lala lajpat rai marg-feroze gandhi marg t-point has caused a lot of inconvenience to me, but the traffic situation on the main road has vastly improved,’’ he said. vivek gupta, a marketing manager working with a non-banking financial firm and a resident of lajpat nagar-iv is ready for the ‘‘experiment’’, but wants to be assured that the new system will go if it fails to deliver. ‘‘until the parking problem is dealt with, i don’t expect much to change. we will have to provide more parking within the same space which is possible only if multi-level parking is introduced,’’ he said.
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