Make Park Street a heritage avenue, do not allow hawkers on pavements: Activists

Kolkata: Alarmed at the possibility of hawkers being allowed to set up stalls on Park Street’s pavements, a cross-section of citizens, including restoration architects, heritage activists, restaurateurs and citizens’ groups, has urged the civic authorities to keep Kolkata’s high street free of encroachment.Reacting to a statement by the Town Vending Committee that plans to demarcate a third of pavements along streets around New Market and Park Street for hawking, citizens said while reining in hawkers in the New Market area is welcome, Park Street should be off-limits for them. Civic and environment action group People United for Better Living In Calcutta (PUBLIC) has written to KMC commissioner Binod Kumar, suggesting that Park Street, with over 15 heritage buildings, be declared a heritage precinct.“We are concerned that the menace of unrestricted violation of the rights of pedestrians will now spread to Park Street...May we suggest that...the Park Street-Russell Street area be declared a heritage precinct,” PUBLIC founder president Bonani Kakkar wrote in the letter to Kumar.Rajiv Kothari, who has multiple restaurants on Park Street, said “This is Kolkata’s showpiece street. The loss of pavements will be unfortunate.” Conservation architect and architecture department head at Sister Nivedita University Manish Chakraborti said the city needs to learn a lesson from what has happened in Gariahat and Hatibagan and then take a call on whether it wants to repeat the mistake on Park Street or allow it to flourish the way it has. Architect Monica Bhargava, who played a key role in the Park Street revitalization project a decade-and-a-half ago, said, “If Park Street’s pavements get encroached, it will be the reversal of the rejuvenation that has taken place,” she said.