Food street makes sandwich of traffic

CHANDIGARH:

Food street

is eating up footpaths in the Sector 15 market so rapidly that the locals have ended up with a thin slice of road and

traffic

that doesn’t flow like butter.

The house owners from the opposite street are tired of moving drive-in shoppers from their driveways.

Sanjay Gulati

, a local, said: “The market gets so busy in the evening that its own parking lot gets full. The visitors then park in front of our houses and we can’t get our own vehicles out.” It leads to altercations but the traffic cops shut their ears to the argument.

Sector-15 resident S L Sial said: “Our taking up the matter with the traffic cops hasn’t helped. There must be an end to this inconvenience.” The road has narrowed also because the street vendors are parked haphazardly across the market. Sector-15 resident welfare association (RWA) president

Surinder Sharma

said: “The municipal corporation should ask the street vendors to keep within their marked zone, so that their customers don’t have to leave their vehicles on road.”

People call for heavy fines to the drivers who leave cars in the middle of the road or in front of the houses. Local resident Supriya Singh said: “I have learnt to drive only recently, and navigating the chaos in front of my market to get home drives me jittery. Traffic police should come to our rescue.”

Roadside mechanics have claimed a major portion of the parking lot, forcing even more drivers to park on the road. The multiple two-wheelers opened up for repair also congest the parking space. Smooth traffic is a natural casualty. Visitor Ashok Chauhan said: “I kept looking for a parking slot for long. I found one far from the market. I can imagine the menace it must be for the house owners and the visitors as well.”