Police-KMC anti-encroachment drive reaches Chandni zone
Times of India | 10 July 2024
12 Kolkata: A hawker pushback drive in central Kolkata’s trade hub Chandni Chowk has freed up roads that have been clogged for decades.
On Tuesday, TOI found cars driving through the streets that used to be clogged with hawkers and even two-wheelers avoided till last week.
“I have been coming to Chandni Chowk Street since 1990 and had never realised this street was so broad.There would be hardly enough space for a cycle van to negotiate through the sea of hawkers, customers and pedestrians. I have tried to ride by two-wheeler through the street to travel from Lenin Sarani to Ganesh Chandra Avenue earlier and it would at times take 8-10 minutes to cover the 400 metres. On Tuesday evening, it took just a minute,” said Aftab Alam who rode down the street a second time on Tuesday and even stopped to get his phone screen fixed without worrying about blocking the road.
Shop-keepers said cops and civic officials have been warning hawkers to stay off the road since last week. “Till last week, around 70% of the road was occupied by hawkers. On Friday, Saturday and again on Monday, cops came and confiscated goods that were kept on the road. This led to hawkers scramble to the pavements, emptying the roads,” said Ershad Alam who has a store that sells clocks on Chandni Chowk Street and claims that though there have been feeble attempts to address the situation, it has never had the effect like the current drive. “We only hope the vigilance is sustained and the hawkers are kept in check,” he said.
TOI did the rounds of surrounding streets on Tuesday evening and saw scrap electric motor shops that used to operate on Biplabi Anukul Chandra Street had disappeared.
Half the street was still clogged with rows of parked cycle vans. But cops said it would be a challenge to free up the street unless alternative parking is provided to the vans that ferry most of the goods that are sold in the belt.
Similar drives have taken place on Hospital Street, Temple Street and Saklat Place where hawkers selling lights, speakers and other goods have been driven to the pavement and asked to stay put there.
“After Canning Street was cleared around a fortnight ago, this is a major drive to unclog streets in and around Chandni Market. We had almost forgotten that these areas too have motorable roads. Thanks to the drive, citizens are able to reclaim these streets,” said Md Ansari, who lives on Ganesh Chandra Avenue and does business in Chandni Chowk.