No cops, cams defunct: 2 trucks move 4km on wrong side on Hindon elevated road

Ghaziabad: Two trucks travelled in the wrong direction for almost 4km on the Hindon elevated roadway in Ghaziabad, prompting concern after commuters posted a 34-second video clip on social media.
Police officials said the trucks accessed the road from Vasundhara around 10.30 pm on Wednesday and reached the rotary roundabout, about 4km away. At the rotary roundabout, a height restriction barrier forced them to turn back. There is no height barrier at Vasundhara.
The elevated road has three exits, once each at Vasundhara, UP Gate and Raj Nagar Extension.
Traffic police could not identify the registration numbers because CCTV systems along the road have remained non-operational for more than a year.
ACP (traffic) Ziauddin Ahmad said a team, which was set up to trace the two trucks, was finding it difficult to identify the vehicles as the CCTV cameras on the elevated roads were dysfunctional, and a video clip doing the rounds on social media was too grainy for them to get the registration number.
"The traffic police are posted at all the entry or exit areas of the elevated road between 7.30 am and 10 pm. The trucks entered the elevated road from Vasundhara after traffic cops were off duty," the ACP said.
From last Dec, cops started lodging FIRs and imposing hefty fines—Rs 1,000—on drivers caught driving on the wrong side. The first to face an FIR was a truck driver caught on the wrong side—Delhi to Ghaziabad carriageway—on Delhi-Meerut Expressway on Dec 11, 2024. A traffic police head constable, Ankur Malik, posted on duty at the Khoda exit on DME, spotted the truck (HR69C/3706) and filed an FIR.
More recently, an FIR was registered against a man for allegedly driving on the wrong side, also of the DME, in the Crossings Republik area on Feb 24. The driver was fined Rs 7,000 for various offences, and his car was seized too.
Last year, traffic police issued over 2.8 lakh challans for wrong-side driving. Between Jan 1 and Feb 24 this year, over 55,000 challans were issued for wrong-side driving.