E-rickshaw ban fails to ease Walled City congestion

Local traders and pedestrians say unless the entry of autos and four-wheelers is controlled, traffic in the walled city will continue to spiral out of control, putting both daily life and the area’s heritage at risk.

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The ban on e-rickshaws in the Walled City from Dec 20 to Jan 10, imposed to manage the surge in tourist footfall, failed to bring any real relief on the ground. Instead of easing congestion, autos and private four-wheelers simply took their place, making traffic conditions even worse in the heritage zone. From Hawa Mahal to Johari Bazaar, vehicles crawl through narrow lanes all day, as long queues of cars and autos choke the roads. The worst affected are pedestrians. The verandas inside the Walled City are packed with encroachments, footpaths have turned into parking spaces, and now even one full lane of the road is being used to park vehicles. With parking facilities already full, parking staff were forced to convert a stretch of the road itself into a makeshift parking area for four-wheelers. This reduced the available road space and pushed traffic into frequent bottlenecks, leading to long jams and slow movement across the area. In Johari Bazaar, 1 entire lane effectively became a parking zone. Arjun, who issues parking slips there, said, “We have no option but to allow parking on the road. So many people are coming in cars that the parking lots are already full. If we don’t park vehicles here, where will they go?”

He added that the situation began to affect even those working in the area. “I live near Chandpole. Earlier it used to take me 10 minutes to reach Johari Bazaar, but now it takes 20 to 30 minutes. That’s why I started walking to work,” he said.

Local traders and pedestrians say unless the entry of autos and four-wheelers is controlled, traffic in the walled city will continue to spiral out of control, putting both daily life and the area’s heritage at risk.