Congestion at entrance on road to Karbala

THE ROAD to Karbala, leading from the GAD Square, provides access to the VIP Road for the residents of Shahjehanabad, Idgah Hills and other localities in the vicinity.

THE ROAD to Karbala, leading from the GAD Square, provides access to the VIP Road for the residents of Shahjehanabad, Idgah Hills and other localities in the vicinity.

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At the best of times the entrance to it has always been congested, what with the crowding during most of the day due to a jungle of two-wheelers in front of the multi-storeyed structures on the square housing cyber cafes, coaching classes and eateries.

Of late, the road has become more crowded, particularly after a clutch of shops was constructed in a jiffy before the last Assembly elections in front of the government complex that earlier housed the RTO’s Office, not very far from the newly-designated Mayor’s House.

The road already had a few automobile workshops which freely used to use the road space. The new construction houses many more workshops in tiny one-room shops. With waiting-for-repair, under-repair and already-repaired two- and four-wheelers parked along the road, space for commuters has been appreciably reduced.

Besides, as the shops were constructed without any set-back, every activity of the workshops/shops – from repair-work to the sale of various kinds of stuff, including chicken, rubbish and discarded material and so on – spills outside on to the road, considerably narrowing it causing inconvenience to the commuting public and exposing others to risks of accidents.

How the shops were allowed to be built without any set-back from a road as important as this one in a town which has claims to be working towards becoming a world-class city deserves to be enquired into by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation and the Urban Administration Department of the government.

In the meantime, one expects the Municipal Corporation to ensure that those who run businesses from these newly-built shops confine their activities within their respective premises.

For having illegally used public spaces for private purposes they should be heavily penalised in summary processes.
Proloy Bagchi Bhopal