Jda: Vendors continue to run biz on road renovated by JDA near Lal Kothi mandi | Jaipur News
The JDA has laid down a cement slab on the road higher than the level of the adjacent roads, forcing vehicles not to take that ‘refurbished’ road. This has helped unauthorised vendors to completely block the road. At present, forget about a four-wheeler, even two-wheelers can hardly make their way through the midst of the carts of these vendors.
A man struggles to navigate through the blocked road
“Everybody knows that these vendors are illegal, yet they have been facilitated in blocking the roads around the Sabji Mandi.
There were occasional police raids to drive away the vendors, but all in vain as they kept coming back. However, now it seems, these vendors have got a permanent platform-in the form of a raised road inaccessible to vehicles-to run their businesses,” said Ram Prasad Sharma, a national bank employee whose office is in the vicinity.
JDA officials said that the plan to refurbish this road was included in the Signal-Free Traffic Project at the Laxmi Mandir Tiraha. This road would serve as the most important alternative road to the road opposite the JP Phatak where JDA constructed an underpass. In case, the road on which the underpass was constructed gets congested for any reason, this road would become the major alternative.
Keeping this in mind, JDA engineers included this road in the project and started refurbishing it. In the process of refurbishing it, the JDA engineers, however, cut this road off from the adjacent ones by raising its height without a slope and, thereby, securing it completely for encroachment by the vendors.
“Once the refurbishing work gets completed, this road would look completely different. But we are not sure when we can complete the work. The police and the civic body are not cooperating with us to remove the vendors. We had to work only at night to carry out the job so far,” said VK Singh, the executive engineer of JDA looking after this project.
The executive engineer apprehended that it would be difficult to ensure smooth traffic on this road until and unless these vendors are removed permanently.
“There is enough space inside the Sabji Mandi, but these vendors don’t want to shift there because these vacant spaces are in a poor condition. The authority concerned should restore these spaces and accommodate them inside,” added Singh.
Traffic officials said that they were only concerned with main roads of the city where there can be traffic congestion owing to such problems.
“If the JDA wants to make this road important for traffic movement, it should inform us officially,” a senior traffic official added.
