Encroachment of roads hinders vehicular, pedestrian movement in Srinagar

Srinagar, Dec 4: Encroachment of vital roads by street vendors is hindering smooth vehicular and pedestrian movement in the summer capital.
The commuters across Srinagar said that continuous encroachment by street vendors has become a nuisance.

The commuters, including office goers said that it results in prolonged traffic jams causing inconvenience to them. They said that the issue is prevalent across most of the Srinagar areas, including Soura,
Khanyar, Bohri Kadal, Safa Kadal, Qamarwari, Lal Chowk, Maisuma, Hari Singh High Street, Hazratbal, Jawahar Nagar, Sarai Balla, Maharaja Bazar, Karan Nagar, Batamaloo, Dalgate.

“It has become difficult to navigate on roads due to encroachment by these vendors. Be it Lal Chowk or Downtown, all roads have been encroached by vendors. Vendors have set up their stalls on main roads too, creating traffic bottlenecks. This issue has led to continuous traffic jams,” said Sajid Ahmed, a commuter.

The commuters said that the whole city is dug up as the construction work is going on under the smart city project. They said the issue has already led to roadblocks and created traffic bottlenecks.
“At such a time when the city has already turned into a construction site, encroachment by street vendors is adding to the problem,” said another commuter.

The traders also complain that it has affected business as all their shops get blocked by these vendors. They said the customers are unable to park their vehicles next to their shops.
“Places like Downtown already have parking issues. As the vendors put up their stalls, there is no space for shoppers as temporary roadside parking is also occupied. People also avoid it because they don’t

want to get stuck in a traffic jam,” said Manzoor Ahmed, a shopkeeper in Downtown.

At busy Sarai Balla, a major portion of the road is occupied by street vendors affecting vehicular and pedestrian movement.

Most of the vendors in Srinagar said that unless the government creates spaces for them, they have no other choice but to operate on roads.

“We have to feed our family, and for that, we set up these stalls. On a daily basis, we hear that special vending zones will be created but nothing happens on the ground. We also want vending zones to be created in a manner that we will not have to lose our customers and livelihood. This should be done with proper planning so that we can earn our bread and butter. Unless there are no vending zones and dedicated areas in each market for us, we will be forced to put up our stalls in a haphazard way,” said Fayaz Ahmad, a street vendor.

SMC Commissioner and CEO Srinagar Smart City CEO Athar Aamir Khan, said that both the departments are working on this issue.

“We are identifying special vending zones under Smart City and SMC projects so that the issue will be addressed properly. We have projects of many such vending zones in the pipeline, and once projects are commissioned, we will not have this issue,” Khan said.