The 165-km long Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh, connecting Greater Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi to Agra, is a star project that has figured in state Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s 2017 election campaign, but security standards on the highway continue to remain bleak. Even after the authorities took cognisance of a recent bus robbery on the expressway and directed the Superintendent of Police (SSP) concerned to increase surveillance, nothing has changed on the ground. Lack of information sharing between various SSPs under whom the expressway comes at various milestones, is seen as a major reason why there has not been any progress on checking crimes on the Yamuna Expressway.
To examine if security has been increased after a Volvo bus was robbed near Aligarh on 22 January, The Sunday Guardian visited the expressway this week. Explaining the process of their work, an officer at the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) said, “The YEIDA had issued a letter to the SSP in Aligarh, requesting the police to increase the frequency of PCR (Police Control Room) vans and ‘Dial 100 cars’ of the Uttar Pradesh police. We have already taken note of the incident and we are doing what we can do. Also, since elections are near, all of us are preoccupied. Security is primarily a police subject.”
However, when police officers in the Tappal police station—the nearest police station in Aligarh where the incident was reported—were questioned about the status of their investigation on the criminals involved, they said, “They will be caught eventually. We don’t know where they come from or who they are. They can be locals or outsiders. It is not easy to ascertain their whereabouts.” A Tappal police official said, “We have recorded only two criminal incidents in 2016-17. Most of the crimes on the expressway occur near Mathura and further on.”
But the employees at the Jewar toll plaza said that criminal activities were quite common near Aligarh.
Since the Jaypee Group is the contractor of Yamuna Expressway, an official of the company, explaining the challenges and security preparations, said, “Since 22 January, we have increased our fleet of patrolling cars and added three more vehicles that patrol the whole 165 km stretch through the night. Each vehicle has a gunman, a head security guard and a patrolling officer. All our patrolling staff are ex-servicemen. In all, we have 21 patrolling cars, 19 CCTVs and 25 vandal resistant dome (VRD) cameras to capture accidents and other fatalities on the road. As a contractor, our primary objective is maintenance of the highway. We have some obligations to look after the safety of the commuters, but it is a job that the police is more capable of handling (not us). Jaypee has even provided cars to the police to patrol the stretch.”
However, The Sunday Guardian did not find any police patrolling on the expressway. Even though YEIDA and Jaypee Group officials assured this newspaper that they have assigned more people to patrol the expressway, there were no patrolling cars spotted until Aligarh and even on the way back to Delhi. Police presence was seen only near toll plazas.
Various employees who work on the expressway said that a lack of coordination between various police stations was a major reason why there has been no improvement in the security standards. The 165-km-long expressway comes under SSPs of four different districts, namely Gautam Budh Nagar, Tappal-Aligarh, Mathura and Agra. There are approximately 11-12 police stations in the four districts where any incident on Yamuna Expressway can be reported. A dhaba owner at Yamuna Expressway said, “It is no wonder that the first argument after an incident occurs on the expressway is about which police station has the jurisdiction of the case. Nobody wants to take responsibility. There is no co-ordination between these police stations or the SSPs. There should be a separate SSP for the expressway.”
A toll plaza employee said, “We continuously advise commuters not to stop anywhere on the expressway, except at the toll plazas or public convenience stops. People who live in nearby areas often jump across the fence to make their way to the expressway to either catch a bus or at times commit crimes.”
A Jaypee official said, “We mend the fence almost every day because nearby villagers always cut it to make their way through it. It is an endless exercise.”
Another major problem with the expressway is the absence of streetlights. The whole stretch is pitch-dark at night, except for the three toll plazas and the convenience stops located near them. This makes travelling on the expressway after dark a risky proposition. When asked, a Jaypee official said, “It is not possible to erect lampposts on the whole 165-km stretch.” Apart from the security issues, traffic violations are also a serious concern on the Yamuna Expressway. As a Jaypee official said, “The traffic police is severely understaffed. There are at least 4,000-5,000 traffic violations every day. But each toll plaza has barely 3-4 traffic constables to issue challans to the violators.”