Traders’ concern at road curbs in Delhi's Connaught Place

NEW DELHI: While Delhi government plans to close a portion of roads and parking lots in and around Connaught Place for four days to organise a laser show on the occasion of Diwali, traders have raised concerns against it.
In a letter to deputy chief minister, traffic police, NDMC and other departments concerned, traders claimed that closing of roads and placing food stalls in parking lots during the four days of festivity will hamper their sales and also lead to chaos in the area.
A Delhi government official, however, claimed that it has not received the letter from CP traders’ association yet. “We will look into their concerns after we receive it,” said the official.
Connaught Place is set to be beautifully illuminated for four-day Diwali mega-celebrations from October 26 to 29. in which Delhi government will be putting up laser light shows set to music. The project aims to coax people to celebrate Diwali without smoke and sound to cut down on the deteriorating air quality.
Atul Bhargava, president of New Delhi Traders Association (NDTA), said that any pedestrianisation plan is against the character and design of CP. “We already suffer due to large-scale squatting of corridors by hawkers,” said Bhargava. “Plans like these laser shows should be implemented in areas like Talkatora Garden or CP Central Park instead”.
“This plan will only worsen business, which is already affected by the economic down cycle and haphazard schemes enforced by the authorities from time to time,” said Vikram Bandhwar, general secretary of NDTA.
A traffic police official, meanwhile, said that shopkeepers will be allowed to park in a separate space at the Inner Circle.
“As per the tentative traffic plan, three out of the six radial roads leading to the inner circle will be pedestrianised. The other three will be allowed for movement of vehicles to drop the visitors without entering the inner circle. For parking, visitors can use the multi-level parking lots at Palika, Shivaji Stadium and Baba Khadak Singh Marg,” said a senior traffic police official. He added that the surface parking lots of blocks A and B will be used for putting up food stalls.