Illegal vendors mint money on Jamshedpur roads during festive months, commuters suffer

Jamshedpur: It is a traffic nightmare for both motorists and pedestrians during the festive months from Sept to Nov every year because of the illegal stalls and vendors coming up on the busy main roads and thoroughfares.

A former police officer, Manoj Jha, said, “The 3-km main road connecting Sonari airport to Dumohini is a two-lane stretch and very narrow. It is not adequate for the huge volume of traffic flowing through it. Adding to the woes are illegal stalls which pop up during the festive months, selling puja items, decorative pieces, fruits and sweets.”

He further said, “The road is already encroached upon by a large number of fast food carts, vegetable, fish and chicken sellers throughout the year. Over 200 such illegal shops are doing business worth crores during these festive months, without paying a penny to the civic body. However, these shops and stalls are littering the area, apart from making the road unsafe and prone to accidents.”

Jha, a resident of Sonari, added, “It is very difficult to drive on that road from 7 am to 11 pm, as people who buy items from these illegal shops park their vehicles on this narrow, busy thoroughfare, even narrowing down the motorable part.”

Notably, the issue of illegal stalls and shops on the main roads in the area has been raised by a senior advocate, Sudhir Kumar Pappu, who is also a member of the local peace committee. He has often written letters to the top brass of the administration, so that the traffic bottlenecks can be removed, but to no avail.

Talking to TOI about the issue on Tuesday, Kakoli Mukherjee said, “Similar problems are seen at Sakchi patta market area, where shopkeepers are minting money sitting on the main road. During the tenure of then DC Vijaya Jadhav, the illegal shops near Sanjay Market were removed, and the main road was beautified with graffiti on the sides. Now, the situation has worsened as more illegal shops have come up in the area over the last year.”

Mukherjee, a teacher at a private English-medium school, added, “Driving on the road connecting Sakchi and Bhalubasa is next to impossible right from the morning till late at night.”

Former Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industries president, Vijay Anand Moonka, expressed deep annoyance over the mushrooming illegal shops which encroached the roads, saying they severely dent the income of bona fide shopkeepers, who pay taxes to the govt.

Meanwhile, East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Karan Satyarthi, along with his team, visited Sakchi and other market areas and directed that no illegal shops should encroach upon the roads across the city during the festive months.