Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 6: The roads in the Srinagar city have been left choked due to the increased number of street vendors who end up eating the road spaces, creating hurdles in the smooth movement of the traffic, while the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) is napping.
There are repeated traffic jams reported across the city throughout the day, as a major portion of the roads in Srinagar has been taken over by the street vendors who are occupying the roads with SMC acting as mute spectator.
As per estimations, at the spots where the presence of street vendors is witnessed across the city, there remains less than half of the road space available for the traffic to play which then ends up resulting in frequent traffic jams.
Across the city, the street vendors are seen at places starting from Batamaloo right up to the Police Control Room. The area remains chocked even as frequent traffic jams are also witnessed in the area creating impediments even for the movement of the ambulances heading towards SHMS and other major hospitals.
“The reason for the traffic jams in this area remains these street vendors who not only occupy the road, but the customers who stop by also end up parking their vehicles along the road, causing further problems in the smooth flow of the traffic,” said a commuter, Gulzar Ahmad.
The same is the situation from Hotel Ahdoos right up to Jehangir Chowk where the road largely remains occupied by the street vendors even as on this stretch as well frequent traffic jams are observed, causing problems in the normal commute.
The things are no better from Ghant Ghar through Amira Kadal, Hari Singh High Street, right up to Jehangir Chowk as well. To commute even on two wheels along the road stretch is difficult let alone the possibility of a four-wheeler passing through.
The street vendors, however, on the other side said that they are ready to relocate if they are provided with a space in the city. They said that the authorities have not been cooperative in this regard.
“We have been asking the authorities to relocate us, but nothing has been done so far; I even met the Commissioner, SMC, asked him to provide us with the space and that we are ready to relocate, but he said that there was no space available; it cannot work this way,” Naseer Ahmad, President Street Vendors Association, Batamaloo said.
On the other hand, while the SMC has been carrying out anti-encroachment drives across the city and had also planned to carry out a census of the street vendors in the city which would pave a way for their rehabilitation, the situation on the ground suggests that the Corporation has not been able to make headway in this direction.
There are also indications of rifts and disagreements within the SMC on the issues of rehabilitation of the street vendors, leading to further chaos and increased hurdles in ensuring smooth movement of the traffic across the city.
To get the official side of the story concerning the road map on dealing with the issue, SMC Commissioner, Athar Amir, Mayor Srinagar Junaid Azim Mattu and Deputy Mayor Pervaiz Qadri were contacted, however, they did not respond to calls and messages from Excelsior.
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