'No traffic zone', new food joint timings: All you need to know about Delhi's revamped Chandni Chowk

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal told a gathering that Chandni Chowk used to have cracked roads, traffic jams and loose wires but has now become beautiful and aesthetically appealing.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday inaugurated the revamped Chandni Chowk market and announced new timings for food joints the street is famous for. Speaking at the inauguration event, Kejriwal said that the street food joints will be allowed till midnight in a bid to transform the market into a major tourist hub.

Commuters roam around Delhi's Chandni Chowk without masks on August 08. (Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times)

“It has already become an important tourist place. I came to know that people come here to roam till 12 am,” the Delhi chief minister said.

"Street food joints will be allowed to open for 3-4 more hours till 12 am so that people can come here in the night and enjoy. Lots of street food joints will be opened after closure of the market," he announced.

Kejriwal told a gathering near Fountain Chowk that Chandni Chowk used to have cracked roads, traffic jams and loose wires but has now become beautiful and aesthetically appealing.

"We have beautified almost 1.4 km stretch of the Chandni Chowk market and made it extremely beautiful. Traffic on the stretch was improved, dangling wires were made underground, CCTVs were installed under the redevelopment project,” he said.

The project witnessed several delays due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. The redevelopment project was approved in August 2018 and was scheduled to be completed in March 2020 but, according to PWD officials, the pandemic forced the delay. The deadline was further pushed to December 2020 and then to April 2021.