Metro pillars add chaos to busy Sultan Bazar streets

Sultan Bazar: The Sultan Bazar market has been divided into three column street segments after the construction of pillars for Metro Rail. The touts have consumed the pedestrian space between pillars by setting up their stores leaving no space for commuters to move around.

The Sultan Bazar market street has always been a congestion zone for moving traffic, and with the arrival of Metro Rail pillars it has turned into a street where even two-wheelers find it hard to negotiate the streets. Meanwhile, the shouting vendors and barrow men are settled in their corner of comfort as they do not have to move anywhere. In fact some of them have installed temporary stores.

One of the cloth merchants Ranjeev said, “The number of small scale sellers has increased in this market, new business are flourishing while the old vendors are worried if their shops will be affected by road widening project.” Since the government has planned 60 feet wide roads which might call for demolishment of the age-old shops.

“Temporarily the space is being used by touts, barrow men while remaining space is being used for bike parking,” said one of the touts Wajid Mohammed at the market. “We are not sure of when this market would come to an end, it has been running from centuries. It is one of the oldest market and residential complexes in the city,” said a resident of the area, Sanjeevan Kumar.