NEW DELHI: Motorists, including two-wheeler riders, entering Chandni Chowk during the restricted hours are having a field day as they get away with a meager penalty of Rs 200 instead of Rs 20,000 as notified by the authority. This issue, with several other violations and encroachments causing chaos in the historic market, was discussed in the recent meeting of the Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Corporation (SRDC) held earlier this month.
Delhi Traffic Police submitted in the meeting that although challans were being issued to violators using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera, most of them escaped with small fines in the Lok Adalat, resulting in no deterrence.
Motor vehicles are not permitted on the 1.3-km-long stretch of Chandni Chowk Road starting from Red Fort crossing to Fatehpuri Mosque from 9 am to 9 pm.
The officials privy to the matter said that a couple of agencies don’t cooperate, and hence chaos prevails in the market. According to the minutes of the meeting, two integrated police booths — at Fountain Chowk and in Khari Baoli Market — are not operational despite repeated directions.
In the meeting, the Public Work Department (PWD) informed that boom barriers at 22 designated locations are still not functioning as Delhi Police hadn’t taken possession yet. The barriers are to be placed at entry points of bylanes merging with Chandni Chowk Road.
Following the deliberation on possible solutions to bring to order, the managing director of the Corporation urged authorities — traffic police, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and PWD — to take a slew of measures.
The deputy commissioner of MCD was asked to get the aerial-videography with drone and photography of the area at different times of the day to identify challenges and possible solutions to the issues. The traffic police have been requested to operationalise both the booths and prepare a comprehensive action plan to implement traffic restrictions.
As per the decision taken in the meeting, the municipal body will deploy Joint Encroachment Prevention Team for regular monitoring to prevent unregistered rickshaws, illegal occupation and loading-unloading of goods during the restricted hours.
Taking a note of the damage caused by the homeless loitering in the marketplace and defecating in the open, the MCD was also asked to prepare an action plan with NGOs and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board for relocating the squatters and improve public safety and hygiene in the area.