Though the police have partially opened the Singhu and Tikari borders of Delhi-Haryana, which were heavily barricaded due to the farmer’s protest, the commuters are still irked off as it is leading to the huge traffic congestion. The authorities said they are partially removing blockades from the Singhu and Tikri borders to allow cross-border movement of vehicles after farmers’ groups said they had postponed their march to the capital till March 3.
However, the blockades on the Ghazipur border, sealing both carriageways of National Highway (NH) 24 near the UP Gate underpass linking Delhi and Ghaziabad, are in place. The farmers have suspended their ‘Dilli Chalo March’ until March 3, and a decision has been made on the further course of the agitation. This comes as a relief for many commuters who regularly commute between Haryana and Delhi.
A lot of non-Delhi-resident people use their personal vehicles to commute to their home and the work place at the national capital. A commuter who works with the DTC department and hails from Rohtak said, “I travel daily from my hometown to Delhi for my job. People like me were suffering a lot due to the closing of borders, and we had to take long routes or either the metro and then a bus. But now borders are partially open, so we can travel in personal cars, which save time. However, the relief is not much for us as there is traffic congestion on the Rohtak road, but the long route is now short due to the reopening of borders.”
Not only the borders, but barricading was done within central Delhi at the ITO, which has also been removed, and the number of deployed security forces has also come down. This is seen as a big relief for commuters, as the checking of vehicles has also gone down, resulting in a decline in long vehicular queuing within the city.