Delhi’s New Barapullah Corridor Chokes As 5-6 Lakh Vehicles Converge

A promised shortcut between Mayur Vihar and south Delhi was overwhelmed within hours of opening to regular commuters, as traffic police said 5, 6 lakh vehicles converged on the Barapullah Phase-III elevated corridor and choked its exit network.

Morning rush turns into long wait

The Barapullah Phase-III elevated corridor was inaugurated on Tuesday (September 29, 2026) with the promise that travel time between Mayur Vihar and south Delhi would fall to about 15 minutes.

By Wednesday (September 30, 2026) morning, the new route had run into a major traffic jam, with queues stretching up to 3.5 kilometres and commuters reporting waits of 40, 60 minutes.

Delhi traffic police said an estimated 5, 6 lakh vehicles moved towards the corridor, overwhelming the road network at its exit.

The congestion began during the morning peak, with gridlock of around 3, 4 kilometres reported between 9.30 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Traffic on NH-24 and NH-9 had eased by around 10.45 a.m., against the usual 11.30 a.m., but the peak on the Barapullah corridor continued until around 1.30 p.m.

That meant the pressure on the newly opened stretch lasted well beyond the normal morning build-up seen on the adjoining routes.

Commuters question first-day gridlock

Social media was filled with accounts from frustrated commuters who said the new corridor had failed to deliver the quicker movement promised at the time of inauguration.

“Stuck for the last 40 minutes going from Mayur Vihar-I to IIC across the river on the road Amit Shah inaugurated yesterday. The jam extends over 3, 4 kilometres. So much for the claims the distance from MV-I to AIIMS will be reduced from 45 to 15 minutes,” one commuter posted.

Another commuter said the traffic on the flyover had taken 55 minutes merely to reach its first merge point.

A third commuter questioned how a newly built road system could become choked on its first day.

Another commuter said he managed to move only a kilometre in 50 minutes.

The commuter accounts broadly matched the police assessment that large volumes of vehicles had moved towards the new corridor soon after it was opened for use.

Police say traffic shifted rapidly to new route

A Mayur Vihar traffic police official deployed on the ground said the corridor drew traffic from several directions once commuters learnt that it could reduce the travel time to AIIMS.

“Thousands of cars that used to take NH-24 took the left from Mayur Vihar and came towards the flyover. Those who take the Delhi, Noida Direct (DND) Flyway also took the flyover,” the official said.

The police deployed around 10, 12 personnel on the Lajpat Nagar side and a similar number on the Mayur Vihar side to manually regulate traffic.

Speaking to The Hindu, South Delhi traffic Deputy Commissioner of Police Sandeep Gupta said Google Maps had directed commuters towards the new corridor without reflecting the developing congestion.

He said this led to a sudden concentration of traffic on the newly opened route.

“Google showed commuters the route but did not show the traffic layering. Everyone kept coming, but there was no option to return or get down,” he said.

Once the queues had stretched to around 3.5 km, the police temporarily stopped vehicles from entering the flyover from the Mayur Vihar side by placing barricades.

Traffic was then diverted towards NH-24.

Vehicles were subsequently allowed onto the corridor in phases as the backlog cleared, Mr Gupta said.

This also led to congestion at the entry point.

Six lanes feeding into two

The problem was compounded by the road geometry, the official said.

The new corridor has six lanes, three in each direction, but it feeds into the existing Barapullah Phase-II stretch, which has only two lanes.

“The old Barapullah flyover is already taking the traffic load from Ring Road and Sarai Kale Khan. Now three additional lanes of traffic are being added to that. So, seven to eight lanes of traffic are merging into two lanes, making it a bottleneck,” Mr Gupta said.

The explanation from police showed that the congestion was not only a result of the number of vehicles attracted to the corridor, but also of the point where the new six-lane section met the older two-lane stretch.

The corridor’s first full commuter rush therefore pushed additional traffic into an already loaded section handling vehicles from Ring Road and Sarai Kale Khan.

Google traffic layering under review

The police are also in touch with Google to address the absence of live traffic layering on the new route.

Mr Gupta said that once the mapping system begins factoring in the congestion, traffic should be distributed between the new and existing routes.

He said this would prevent traffic from being directed overwhelmingly towards the new corridor.

The police response on Wednesday therefore involved both immediate traffic control on the ground and communication with the mapping platform that had guided commuters towards the corridor.

Other carriageway still closed

The other side of the flyover was not opened to traffic on Wednesday (September 30, 2026) because tents and other inauguration arrangements had not yet been removed by the Public Works Department.

The department has assured the police that the arrangements will be cleared overnight.

The other carriageway is to be opened on Thursday (October 1, 2026).

The police expect the situation to improve during the evening peak as traffic patterns settle.

Mr Gupta said the new corridor’s three lanes could also help ease the Sarai Kale Khan stretch by allowing some traffic to bypass the existing exit there.

That expected benefit depends on traffic being distributed across the new and existing routes rather than all being concentrated on the freshly opened corridor.

Project opened after years of delay

The Phase-III corridor was among four road infrastructure projects worth ₹1,941 crore inaugurated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday (September 29, 2026) after years of delay.

The long-pending project was billed as a major link between east and south Delhi.

The government had said it would cut travel time between Mayur Vihar Phase-I and south Delhi by around 20, 25 minutes.

At the inauguration stage, the corridor was also presented as a route that could reduce travel time between Mayur Vihar and south Delhi to about 15 minutes.

Its first morning under heavy commuter use, however, saw travel on the corridor slowed by queues, waits of up to 40, 60 minutes, and a bottleneck where multiple lanes merged into the older Barapullah stretch.

The immediate concern for traffic managers is therefore whether opening the remaining carriageway, regulating entry in phases, and fixing live traffic layering can prevent the same concentration of vehicles from recurring on the route.

Source: The Hindu