The Tiruchi City Police and the Corporation authorities have joined
hands to tackle the issue of encroachments and congestion on the Big
Bazaar street – the city’s prominent commercial hot spot.

Dotted
with commercial establishments on either side of the entire stretch, the
Big Bazaar street also known as ‘Periya Kadai Veedhi’ is always abuzz
with trading activity till the late night hours.

Indiscriminate
parking of vehicles along the busy stretch and encroachments by some of
the shopkeepers makes it difficult for a free ride for motorists coming
from the Gandhi Market arch and from the by lanes.

Realising the
problem, the law enforcers and the civic body have now come together in a
conscious effort to address the twin issues of congestion and
encroachments along the Big Bazaar street.

A team of city traffic
police personnel led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and
Traffic) S. Prabhakaran along with senior Corporation officials on
Saturday asked the shopkeepers to remove the encroachments as early as
possible to ease congestion and ensure smooth ride for motorists from
the Gandhi Market arch towards the NSB road.

The shopkeepers have been given time for a couple of days to remove the encroachments along the stretch.

The
civic body officials would remove encroachments with assistance
provided by the police if the traders failed to remove them, said Deputy
Commissioner Prabhakaran.

The city police would hold a meeting with the traders on February 21 to insist them to remove encroachments, he said.

The city police have planned one-side parking of two-wheelers along the Periya Kadai veedhi.

The
plan is to have parking on one side for the first 15 days and parking
on the other side of the stretch on the second half of the month.

Proper paint markings would be done along the street to enable parking of two-wheelers.