Fearing disruption of business, Ludhiana furniture traders protest against flyover design

Ludhiana’s furniture traders, observing a shut-down until 2 pm to mark their protest, said the walls will leave no space for them to carry out their business

Already running behind schedule, the project to construct an elevated road from Samrala chowk leading up to Ferozepur road has hit a roadblock with furniture traders near Bharat Nagar Chowk on Wednesday taking to streets against the design of the elevated road portion — flyover — being constructed in the vicinity.

Fearing disruption of business, Ludhiana furniture traders took to streets against the design of the flyover being constructed at the Bharat Nagar Chowk. (HT File)

Anticipating heavy losses, the traders, under the banner of Bharat Nagar Furniture and Traders Association, protested against the proposed design — as per which retaining walls are being constructed at the landing area on both sides.

Traders, observing a shut-down until 2 pm to mark their protest, said the walls will leave no space for them to carry out their business, with association president Paul Khurana saying “The retaining walls will leave only a 24-feet wide service lane and there will be no space left for parking. It will be difficult for us to even load/unload the products.”

“Further, it will divide the market in two parts and result in traffic chaos. Properties on the road are worth over ₹1,000 crore and the loss of business will also result in loss to state exchequer in terms of taxes,” he added.

Traders have suggested that the elevated road be constructed on pillars, which leave ample parking space. They also demanded that the elevated road be directly connected to the bus stand flyover to streamline the movement of traffic.

Meetings with legislators, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and district administration officials have failed to resolve the stand-off. Most recently, the traders had also conducted a meeting with parliamentarian Sanjeev Arora, while a memorandum was submitted with the deputy commissioner’s office around two months ago.

“Earlier, an underpass was proposed at Bharat Nagar chowk, but the plan was dropped due to technical issues. The authorities should come up with a solution, so our business is not affected,” said Rajinder Singh, association coordinator

Khurana said Arora and MLA (Ludhiana West) Gurpreet Gogi had assured them of resolving the issue in the coming days.

Around 150 furniture outlets line the market, which is a hub for furniture products in the city.

One of the field officials of NHAI stated that it is not possible to change the design of the elevated road at this stage. The design was approved around two years ago. The shopkeepers have their vested interests and they can take up the matter with the higher authorities.

The flyover is a part of the 12.951-km long elevated road project which connects Octroi post on Ferozepur road (NH 95) to Samrala chowk. The work on the project, being carried out by NHAI, commenced in October 2017, but has missed several deadlines.