Chandni Chowk facelift: MCD proposals fail to find favours

To deliberate on a proposed redevelopment plan for the busy Chandni Chowk area made by the MCD, traders associations, residents groups and MCD officials held a meeting on Friday. HT reports.

To deliberate on a proposed redevelopment plan for the busy Chandni Chowk area made by the MCD, traders associations, residents groups and MCD officials held a meeting on Friday.

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However, proposals in the R400-crore plan failed to find favour with many participants. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had decided to hold a meeting of all stakeholder to get their views before implementing the project.

“They are talking about 15-metres wide footpaths on both sides of the road and making the stretch one-way for most of the day — both of which are not feasible,” said a trader who participated in the meeting.

Renuka Gupta, councillor from Ballimaran who attended the meeting called by the additional commissioner (engineering), also said most of the proposals are “not practical”. A number of traders and the councillor criticised the civic agency for not being formally invited to the meeting.

Under the redevelopment plan, the civic agency has proposed to ban carts used for carrying goods by the traders while it has allowed passenger rickshaws to ply. Last year both the Delhi government and the MCD had proposed to carry out improvement work in the Walled City before the Commonwealth Games, which included constructing new footpaths, improving the walkways, façade improvement, repairing the old buildings etc.