Kamla Nagar Market takes the first step towards pedestrianisation

New Delhi:

New Delhi:

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Kick-starting its ‘pedestrianisation and parking management plan’ for north Delhi's Kamla Nagar Market, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Tuesday turned three major radial roads —Mandelia Road, Maharaja Agrasen Marg and Gali No. 7 into no-parking zones.

Kamla Nagar Market is one of the three areas to be developed as ‘model for parking management’ and the civic body has to submit a report to the Supreme Court by the end of this month. The other two areas are Lajpat Nagar-3 in south Delhi and Krishna Nagar in east Delhi.

According to civic officials, traffic movement on Kolhapur Road, which emerges from Bara Gol Chakkar near Spark Mall, will be blocked in a couple of days and the stretch will be fully pedestrianised.

Hindustan Times on Tuesday found that the civic body staff had installed bollards and signage, lanes were marked in yellow and encroachments were removed. The traffic police were streamlining the vehicular movement and removing parking from the streets.

Varun Vats, a businessman and a frequent visitor, said it would make the shopping experience better. “Haphazardly parked vehicles is a major problem. The roadside parking has been shifted to the mall, which has created more space on roads for pedestrians,” Vats said.

Ira Singhal, deputy commissioner (Keshavpuram zone) said the main aim of the project was to remove haphazard parking and encroachments and develop it into a pedestrian-friendly zone.

The project, in which agencies such as the north corporation, public works department, traffic police, Delhi Police and the market association are involved, emphasises on improving walkability and decongesting the market by regularising parking.

A north corporation report submitted to the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) says the total demand for cars in the area is 1,594. The civic body formulated a plan to accommodate 1,598 cars by fully utilising the Spark Mall parking, which has a capacity of 828 cars, and designating on-street and off-street parking areas.

Anuj Malhotra, knowledge partner with the Union ministry of home affairs, who is assisting the north corporation with the project, said it would take 3-4 days to fully implement the project.

Malhotra said one of the radial roads emerging from Bada Gol Chakkar — Kolhapur Road — will be made pedestrian-only. On the other three major radial roads — Maharaja Agrasen Marg, Mandelia Road and Gali No. 7 — the current two-way traffic system will be retained but parking will not be allowed.

“Pedestrian paths of four metres each will be created on the roadside. A space of two metres will be left on each road for multi-utility zones where trees, benches, lamps, food stalls and water kiosks will come up,” Malhotra said.

A civic body official said shopkeepers will now park their vehicles at Spark Mall or surface parking lots at other remaining radial roads leading to the roundabout.

The officials said stray cows was another problem in the area. “We had put tree saplings, which were eaten by cows. Now we will look for the tree saplings such as Kaner, which are not favourite for such livestock animals,” a senior official associated with the project said.

Nitin Gupta, president of one of the Kamla Nagar trader association, said it was a community driven move which would benefit the traders and improve the shopping experience in the market.