No handcarts during peak hours in SoBo

Unhappy with this decision, local businesses and porters running handcarts in the area said their daily job will be hampered.

Mumbai: The Mumbai traffic police recently issued a notification banning the movements of handcarts as well as the loading/unloading of goods in south Mumbai from 8am to 11am and 4pm to 8pm to ease traffic congestion in the area.

Yusuf Soni, a businessman from Abdul Rehman Street, said, “Since most are wholesale shops, we receive orders throughout the day from customers from different cities and towns. These orders are then packed by 4pm and dispatched in the evening to the local courier shops using handcarts. With this order, we will be able to dispatch the evening orders the next day. This means arranging for additional storage space.” (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

“The movement of handcarts and loading/unloading of goods on major arterial roads is causing inconvenience to the public and causing traffic jams, especially during peak hours in south Mumbai. Therefore, to prevent obstruction, inconvenience to the public and to maintain smooth vehicular traffic movements, there shall be no plying of any type of handcarts, no loading/unloading of goods vehicles (excluding vehicles supplying essential services,” states the notification which was issued on May 8.

Unhappy with this decision, local businesses and porters running handcarts in the area said their daily job will be hampered. Areas like Abdul Rehman Street, Masjid Bunder and Mohammed Ali Road often have handcarts to load/unload goods.

Yusuf Soni, a businessman from Abdul Rehman Street, said, “Since most are wholesale shops, we receive orders throughout the day from customers from different cities and towns. These orders are then packed by 4pm and dispatched in the evening to the local courier shops using handcarts. With this order, we will be able to dispatch the evening orders the next day. This means arranging for additional storage space.”

Yusuf Sheikh, a porter at Masjid Bunder, said, “The authorities cannot ask us to stop our work because we are licensed handcart owners. Illegal hawkers are the major reason for traffic.”

Around 400 handcarts operate in the Masjid Bunder market, each working at least three rounds a day.

Pravin Padwal, Joint CP traffic said, “Handcarts are slow-moving vehicles and to reduce traffic on certain arterial roads, they are banned during peak hours.”

Vicky Doshi, another businessman said handcarts are irreplaceable. “If tempos take their place, there will be 3 to 4 tempos for every shop and there will be no place to even walk. The nuisance of traffic is because of bikes, parking by residents and most importantly illegal encroachment by hawkers.”