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Delhi’s first car-free zone

  • A stretch of Ajmal Khan road in Karol Bagh, a popular market in north Delhi, has been made into a car-free zone. It used to be previously clogged with cars, autos and hand-pulled carts. Just get off the Karol Bagh Metro Station and saunter through this spruced up stretch prettied up with benches, plants and street lights. The effort to create Delhi’s first car-free zone was led by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), the Public Works Department and the Traffic Police.

     

     

    Picture: Shrey Gupta

  • To pedestrianize the market, first all access to vehicles was blocked off. The NDMC cleaned up the area. The road has white lines demarcated for e-rickshaws which will be introduced at a later stage of the project. An area with a yellow line maps out space for street vendors and hawkers. The area between the yellow and white lines is for the installation of mobile toilets, kiosks and dustbins.

     

     

    Picture: Shrey Gupta

  • To make the market pedestrian friendly, the NDMC has installed potted plants, garden lamps and shiny new benches. With all the cars gone, footfalls have increased. Despite it being peak summer, thousands of people flock to the market in the evening. Visitors no longer have to look over their shoulder to check for cars. The place doesn’t resound with the cacophony of cars. It is safer and less polluted.

     

     

    Picture: Shrey Gupta

  • To get everyone on board, the NDMC talked to the local traders’ association, the hawkers and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. The traders’ association now manages the parking lot and pays the NDMC a small amount for maintenance of the area. Most vendors and shop owners  are happy. Ravi, 32, has a stall in the market “Shoppers are happy. And the NDMC is going to improve the area further,” he says.

     

     

     

    Picture: Shrey Gupta

  • A visitor for more than 40 years Jogender, 64, and his wife Babita, 60, were at the market with their 11-year-old grandson for the third time in a week. “We used to live in Patel Nagar initially but the traffic and congestion  was too much to handle so we shifted to Dwarka. Now thanks to the Metro, we are regular visitors here.” NDMC plans to pedestrianise areas like Connaught Place and Chandni Chowk in Delhi.

     


     

     

    Picture: Shrey Gupta