Crane breakdown brings traffic to a halt on Delhi-Gurgaon expressway

Until Saturday night, the crane was yet to be removed, said officials. A senior Delhi Police officer, said, “An 18-wheeler hydraulic crane had caught fire around 8.30 am… We immediately deployed full staff from our circle and tried removing it with 5-7 cranes, but since it is a heavy crane, it could not be removed. We have now brought in a larger crane from Dharuhera and traffic will be cleared soon. Mechanics were flown from Mumbai and most of the wheels of the crane have been replaced. This stretch on the highway sees a heavy volume of traffic and a heavy vehicle breaking down caused logjams.”

Commuters going from Gurgaon to Delhi remained stranded for hours on the national highway. Due to the scorching heat, several vehicles broke down and had to be moved to the emergency lane. Officials said the breakdown created a bottleneck, especially at the Gurgaon-Delhi border.

Isha Tyagi, a Gurgaon resident, said she was stuck for over two hours in traffic. “I had to go to a temple in Delhi to offer prayers on Ashtami. I left home around 10.45 am and traffic was fine for some distance. However, from Ambience Mall to a stretch just before Mahipalpur – over 7-8 km – traffic had come to a standstill. It took us over 1.5 hours to cross this stretch, which is usually covered in 15 minutes. Traffic had still not cleared up on the Gurgaon-Delhi side when we were returning around 3.30 pm,” she said.

Dilpreet Singh, who works in a BPO in Gurgaon, said due to the diversions from the highway, the arterial and connecting roads also were congested. “There was bumper-to-bumper traffic, slowly crawling towards Delhi. I was returning to my home in West Delhi after completing my shift in Gurgaon. As everyone tried to take a detour towards Udyog Vihar to reach Delhi from Kapashera, it led to congestion on service lanes of the highway also. It took me three hours to reach Delhi,” he said.

Ravinder Tomar, DCP Traffic, Gurgaon, said: “To reduce inconvenience to the public, traffic police diverted vehicles at multiple places including Pachgaon, where traffic was diverted to Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) and at other places like MG Road, Udyog Vihar, Aya Nagar and Dundahera border.”He added that efforts continued by various agencies in Delhi to remove the obstruction. “By evening, vehicles started to move in two lanes at the spot where the crane was stuck,” said the DCP

In a statement around 8.30 pm, Gurgaon traffic police said commuters had been advised through social media platforms to avoid the stretch. “We shall provide an update as soon as the blockage is successfully removed,” it read.