Multi-storey complexes: A fast-growing menace
The Hewitt Road-Latouche Road stretch has more than 2,000 shops with no parking facility at all. Result: Bottlenecks throughout the day
Once considered to be one of the best residential area of the city, the Hewitt Road-Latouche Road stretch has undergone a metamorphosis of sorts.
Most of the residential places here have given way to multistorey apartments, commercial complexes and hotels.
But who allowed such vertical growth? The Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) knows best!
The 30-feet-wide Hewitt Road leading to Latouche Road, which had around 60 to 80 houses till 10 years back, now has more than 2,000 shops with no parking facility at all. The stretch remains choked throughout the day due to parking on roadsides and increased traffic load.
The stretch from Hussainganj crossing, Bengali Club to Sarojini Devi Dharmshala has turned into a ‘road without rules’.
As one enters this road from Hussainganj, a six-storey hotel can be seen ‘standing tall’ without any parking facility.
Almost all the buildings dotting the road have basements with shops functioning inside instead of parking facility.
Almost 70% of the 30-feet-wide road remains encroached with vehicles parked by shopkeepers and people visiting the market.
TK Bhattacharya, a resident of Hewitt Road, says: “This road was never meant to handle the pressure of 2,000 shops, which attract more than a lakh people every day. It’s hard for us to even walk out of our houses now. That’s why people are selling off their houses in the bylanes of areas like Model House, Jadunath Sanyal Road and migrating to the outskirts of the city. Buildings without parking space are coming up in Model House as well.”
LDA secretary Ashtabhuja Tewari said, “We know what has happened on the Hewitt Road-Latouche Road stretch where almost every house has been converted into a commercial complex. We have also received complaints about the houses in narrow lanes being converted into multistory buildings. Strong action would be taken against builders and engineers who have allowed such construction in the area.”