Barapullah Phase-III traffic is being diverted in Delhi after the Traffic Police identified a structural bottleneck where traffic from around eight to nine lanes converges into only three lanes on the older Barapullah Flyover.
The Delhi Traffic Police said the Old Barapullah Flyover has three lanes, while the newly opened Phase-III flyover on the Mayur Vihar side, the Sarai Kale Khan loop and the DND loop each have around three lanes. Traffic from these routes is converging at a single point on the older flyover, creating severe congestion.
The department said traffic personnel have been deployed at the merging points to regulate vehicle movement. Traffic coming from Barapullah Phase-III is being diverted towards NH-24 and the DND route as an immediate measure to reduce pressure on the congested stretch.
The clarification followed a post by a journalist about a traffic jam of around 2 km from Mayur Vihar towards AIIMS. The post also said an ambulance had been caught in the congestion. The traffic police subsequently attributed the snarls to the lane reduction on the Old Barapullah Flyover.
The congestion has emerged soon after the opening of Barapullah Phase-III, which was intended to improve connectivity between Mayur Vihar and Sarai Kale Khan and ease movement towards central Delhi. The traffic police also said Google Maps was not accurately reflecting live conditions on the stretch and continued to show the road as green.
The bottleneck has highlighted the operational challenge of connecting multiple high-capacity approaches to a narrower older road section. While the approaches provide around three lanes each, the receiving flyover has only three lanes, requiring traffic to merge before continuing towards central Delhi.
The incident comes as the Centre has approved a ₹1,789.52-crore Intelligent Traffic Management System for Delhi Police. The system is planned for implementation across 42 traffic corridors in three phases over 24 months, followed by five years of operation and maintenance.
The proposed system will include 1,092 Adaptive Traffic Control Systems and 1,029 enforcement locations. Unlike fixed-time signals, adaptive systems are designed to adjust signal timings according to real-time traffic conditions. The system is also expected to support congestion and incident detection, quicker diversions, green corridors and priority movement for emergency vehicles.
Delhi Police said the technology will include digital message boards and connected platforms providing information on congestion, diversions, parking availability and traffic conditions. AI-based systems are also planned to assist with detecting speeding, red-light jumping, wrong-way driving, illegal parking and mobile-phone use while driving.
The city has around 71 lakh active registered vehicles, with vehicular growth outpacing the expansion of road infrastructure. For the Barapullah corridor, traffic management is currently being handled through diversions and personnel at the merging points while the congestion persists.
