Delhi: Stretch in Lal Quarter Market to become vehicle-free from Monday

The main stretch of Lal Quarter Market in Krishna Nagar, east Delhi, will become permanently vehicle-free from Monday (January 6), officials confirmed. Successful trials towards this purpose had been carried out from October 7 to 11 in 2019.

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The Lal Quarter Market is part of the ‘market decongestion’ project being carried out by Delhi’s three municipal corporations after directions from the union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to emulate ‘shopping streets’ in European cities like Venice, Copenhagen, London and Paris. After closing off portions of shopping hubs for vehicles, several features like ornamental lights, artworks, flowerpots and cafeterias will be introduced in several city markets to beautify them. The vehicles will be parked at multi-level parking spaces and other specific slotted areas.

The Lal Quarter Market dates back to the 1950s—it is one of the oldest in east Delhi and is very popular among locals for its eateries, apparel shops and jewellery stores. It is called a ‘mini Connaught Place’ (CP) and receives a footfall of 10,000 on weekdays and almost 20,000 on weekends.

East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) officials, who are executing the project at Lal Quarter market, issued a traffic plan for the market on Saturday that earmarked a 1.25 km-long stretch from Chachi Building to Ghondly Chowk as ‘pedestrian-only.’ An adjoining small loop along Lal Quarter Marg was also marked only for pedestrians. Mandir Marg, from Subzi Mandi Chowk to Raghunath Mandir, was marked as a ‘two-way traffic road’, while two stretches—in blocks C and D—were marked for ‘one-way traffic only’.

The boundary walls of two schools along Bhagat Singh Road—MCD Primary School and Government Sarvodaya Girls Senior Secondary School—were slotted for ‘four-wheeler parking.’ Lastly, one side of the Krishna Nagar Park complex was earmarked for ‘two-wheeler parking only.’

The Assistant Commissioner of the EDMC and nodal officer of the project, Aman Rajput, said, “Our multi-level car park in the area is already functional. It has six levels and 200 parking slots where any visitor can freely leave his or her vehicle behind and walk in the market to shop or enjoy the ambience.”

The corporation submitted this plan to the Supreme Court-empowered Environment Pollution Control Authority (Epca) on September 10, 2019, and got an NOC (No Objection Certificate) from the Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure Planning and Engineering Centre (UTTIPEC) recently.

Bansi Lal Arora, general secretary of the Lal Quarter Market Traders Association, said, “We are fully cooperating with the municipal body and making our own preparations regarding the change from Monday.”