Not an year after redevelopment, Chandni Chowk back to messy state

NEW DELHI: The redevelopment of Chandni Chowk did not even finish its one year, and has come in the limelight for being the ‘sight of negligence’. Despite several inspections and orders, it continues to have the same problems as before.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated the redeveloped Chandni Chowk market in September 2021.
In a meeting held recently under the chairmanship of Chief Nodal Officer/principal secretary (PWD), the Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Corporation (SRDC) in its report highlighted major problems such as defacement of properties, unhygienic conditions of streets, overflowing garbage bins, unregulated plying of vehicles, unregistered cycle rickshaw, dried up plants and vandalism of boom barriers installed at street junctions.

The officer pointed out that during an inspection by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the redeveloped stretch appeared to be a ‘sight of negligence’. He directed officials to focus on improving the overall situation of the area and create a monitoring framework to work on the same.

The Delhi Traffic Police in its status report directed the superintending engineer/ nodal officer (PWD) to immediately rectify the shortcomings and hand over the boom barriers to them by July 6. The move was necessary to ensure restriction on motor vehicles and prevent illegal parking in the restricted area.

To keep a check on transportation, it was decided to appoint a special commissioner (transport) as the nodal officer for the transport department who would submit a status report on the operation of vintage-look electric golf carts and submit a timeline on the impact study of pedestrians on the street after restriction on vehicles from 9 am to 9 pm.

For regulating loading and unloading activity, it was decided that the deputy commissioner in coordination with the deputy commissioner police will deploy a joint encroachment prevention team to conduct regular drives to regulate rickshaws, loading-unloading, hawking, squatting, spitting, sanitation and littering etc.

As unregistered cycle rickshaws on the roads were causing congestion, the officials were asked to send a revised timeline for introducing re-designed cycle rickshaws for the restricted area by July 6. For the parking issues, the MCD’s nodal officer was asked to finalize the area parking management area plan such that the same shall be included in the multi-modal transportation plan for Shahjahanabad.

Action to stop ‘illegal’ activities
For regulating loading and unloading activity, it was decided that the deputy commissioner in coordination with deputy commissioner police will deploy a joint encroachment prevention team to conduct regular drives to regulate rickshaws, loading-unloading, hawking, squatting, spitting, sanitation and littering.