With a combined length of nearly 90 kilometres and forming two arterial loops through the heart of the Capital, Delhi’s Ring Road and Outer Ring Road are vital to keeping its vast network of motor traffic in constant motion. But over the past fortnight, these lifelines have turned into chronic chokepoints, causing daily gridlocks for millions of motorists.
The reasons for the worsening traffic situation are manifold — construction activities by multiple civic agencies, encroachments, vehicle breakdowns, and rampant unauthorised parking. What makes matters worse is the sparse presence of traffic personnel at many critical points, making it nearly impossible to regulate flow or break logjams in real time.
Experts say these overlapping issues can’t be solved by a piecemeal approach. What’s needed is a strategic overhaul of how Delhi governs and manages its traffic systems.
According to a Delhi Traffic Police survey last year, 134 stretches across the city were identified as congestion hotspots. At least 12 of these — including Savitri Flyover, Safdarjung Hospital, Majnu Ka Tila and Peeragarhi Chowk — are located along the Ring Road and Outer Ring Road.
“The Ring Road serves as a convergence point for five national highways (NH) — NH-1, NH-2, NH-8, NH-10, and NH-24 — which leads to frequent merging and diverging of traffic, creating conflict points,” the traffic police’s road crash reports from 2022 and 2023 stated.
When HT drove the entire 87km stretch of the two roads on Tuesday afternoon — outside peak hours — it found widespread and persistent congestion.
Though the speed limit is 60 kmph, the average speed was under 20 kmph, and the full circuit took nearly five hours to complete. Even at a modest 45 kmph, the trip should have taken less than two hours. Traffic regulation was visible only at a handful of points — Dhaula Kuan, Chirag Delhi, IIT Flyover and Kashmere Gate ISBT. Elsewhere, chaos was largely left to resolve itself.
Senior traffic officials blamed a mix of road narrowing (from seven to as few as three lanes), absence of dedicated lanes for heavy and light vehicles, frequent breakdowns, encroachments, and flawed designs for the snarls.
“The Outer Ring Road stretch from Subroto Park to Okhla sees consistently heavy traffic, which spikes further during peak hours. The road narrows at several points, and we’ve suggested dedicated lanes for different categories of vehicles. But roadside vendors and unauthorised parking are also major issues,” said Dinesh Kumar Gupta, additional commissioner of police (traffic zone-2). “Traffic personnel are deployed during peak hours and our motorcycle teams patrol the worst-affected areas.”
Every traffic circle has two motorcycle patrol teams and three to four traffic regulation and prosecution teams, meaning at least 15 personnel from each circle are deployed on traffic management and prosecution duty daily, said additional CP Gupta. “The Outer Ring Road in south Delhi falls under four traffic circles. During peak hours, maximum deployment is done on this route and personnel are told to focus on traffic regulation. The same teams focus on prosecuting traffic violators during the non-peak hours,” said Gupta.
The many chokepoints
The Outer Ring Road stretch between Subroto Park and Okhla was among the worst-hit. Traffic snarls were reported at the RTR flyover, near Malai Mandir, the Jia Sarai and IIT flyovers, Khel Gaon, Chirag Delhi, and Nehru Place. Causes varied — merging traffic from feeder roads, construction work by multiple agencies, halted autos and cabs near metro stations, and breakdowns on narrowed flyovers.
At the two IIT flyovers — from Ber Sarai to SDA Market — at least four lanes of traffic from Vasant Vihar, Munirka, Africa Avenue and Ber Sarai merge into just three lanes. Entry and exit from a petrol pump at the bottleneck further slows down traffic. Autos and e-rickshaws outside IIT Metro station and the nearby Rose Garden, along with private vehicles headed to SDA market, worsen the mess. Meanwhile, traffic diverges from the flyover to Chirag Delhi above and Green Park/Mehrauli below.
Between Savitri Cinema and Chirag Delhi, the road’s limited capacity and high volume of vehicles have overwhelmed the single-direction two-lane flyover. Sudden lane switches during peak hours choke the ramps. A proposal to expand the flyover to two sides has been stalled for over five years.
At Nehru Place, high footfall from shoppers and office-goers keeps the roads perpetually busy. With formal parking spaces full, vehicles line the roads, joined by swarms of autos and e-rickshaws. Multiple bus stops and constant merging/diverging on the flyover add to the gridlock.
On the Ring Road, the stretch from Ashram Chowk northwards sees similar chaos. At Sarai Kale Khan, traffic merges from Barapullah flyover, a fuel station, buses from the ISBT, and roadside vendors — all funneled into a few lanes, further constricted by diversions below the flyover.
The south Delhi stretch of Ring Road — from Indraprastha flyover to Moti Bagh — was among the most congested. Between AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital, merging lanes, encroachments and halting buses created long tailbacks.
Moving north, traffic from the Delhi-Meerut Expressway and NH-9 turning toward Pragati Maidan clogs Bhairon Marg and the Pragati Maidan tunnel. A petrol pump and U-turn near IP Depot add to the congestion.
At Kashmere Gate ISBT, perennial gridlock continues due to merging traffic from east Delhi, U-turns and loops. A recent enforcement drive helped reduce congestion by curbing unauthorised pick-up/drop activity. However, state and private buses now queue along the flyover, creating new choke points.
Majnu Ka Tila suffers from haphazard parking; Wazirabad flyover is snarled due to metro construction. Haiderpur underpass and flyover repair work has slowed traffic in both directions, worsened by merging traffic at Haiderpur Metro Station, a bus stop on the flyover, and a left loop towards GT Karnal Road. No traffic staff were present to manage the flow.
Towards west Delhi, ongoing construction at Madhuban Chowk, Peeragarhi Chowk, and Bhera Enclave slowed traffic, though movement improved past Janakpuri.
“We regularly hold meetings with construction agencies to urge faster timelines. Improper parking is a major factor, and we’ve penalised thousands of vehicles this year,” said Monika Bhardwaj, additional commissioner of police (traffic zone-1).
Experts said better enforcement and smarter design are only part of the solution. Technology remains the missing link.
“Right now, PWD and traffic police mostly depend on Google Maps, TomTom or radio for real-time updates. That’s not enough,” said S Velmurugan, chief scientist and head of the traffic engineering and safety division at the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI). “We need a system that lets commuters make real-time, informed decisions and switch to alternate routes.”
He also called for faster repair tools like quick pothole-fix machines and more efficient flyover maintenance. “Periodic repair is necessary, but tech can reduce its traffic impact,” he said.
Most crucially, Velmurugan stressed the need to roll out the long-delayed Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) — a smart network of AI and sensors to automate enforcement, manage signals, and map congestion in real time. “It’s already in place in most major cities globally. It could dramatically ease Delhi’s daily traffic nightmares.”
For now, though, Delhi’s two arterial roads — designed to move the city — remain jammed in a tangle of overlapping failures: poor planning, weak enforcement, civic apathy, and a lack of modern tools to untie the knot.
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