Shops have sprung up again on the key Station-Jugsalai Road barely three months after they were cleared by the district administration to ensure commuters headed to Tatanagar station weren’t inconvenienced and delayed by frequent traffic jams that were a result of the encroachments.

The makeshift kiosks, selling garments, footwear and hardware items, have been set up on both sides of the road from Pradip Mishra Chowk till the station.

In December last year, during a joint drive carried out by the railways and local administration, as many as 50 such shops were removed from what is railway property.

But these have come back, most of them opening as early as 8am and carrying on business till 9pm at least.

Tatanagar station director H.K. Balmuchu said the railways would carry out an eviction drive soon. “We plan to make that stretch free from encroachments. We plan to barricade the area presently occupied by encroachers,” he said.

Passengers headed towards Tatanagar station are upset. “Our auto-rickshaw had to face a tough time negotiating the Station-Jugsalai road on Wednesday morning due to the encroachments.

The administration should take this issue seriously and make the road free from encroachments,” said K.V. Rao, a retired employee of Tata Steel who was going home to Sonari after arriving from Calcutta on the Jan Shatabdi Express.

Earlier this month, during a railway function at Tatanagar station, the encroachers had covered their kiosks after they got to know that chief minister Raghubar Das, who was to be chief guest, would be coming. But Das did not turn up.