Shacks and stalls made out of flammable items like bamboo, plastic sheets and plywood have mushroomed across New Town.
These stalls eat into the walkways, boulevards and portions of the thoroughfares of the planned township has a mix of housing complexes, offices, and commercial buildings interspersed with parks and a wide road network.
As many of these shacks use LPG cylinders and kerosene stoves to cook, they also pose a serious fire risk.
On February 13, The Telegraph went around all three action areas of New Town and witnessed that the pavement-grabbing stalls were nearly everywhere.
Behind Nazrul Tirtha in Action Area I, a long row of stalls made out of bamboo poles and lined with roofs made out of plastic sheets, occupy the paved walkway that leads to the Rail Vihar housing complex and a bunch of housing cooperative societies.
This stretch has more than 150 stalls. Apart from these stalls, vendors on vans and carts park themselves right in the middle of the bicycle lanes to sell their wares.
It is a similar picture in front of Home Town Mall near the clock tower, as long stretches of both the pavements outside the DLF II complex, around 2.3km from New Town police station, have been completely encroached upon by hawkers.
The road and walkways, including designated parking zones in front of the Axis Mall, are lined with stalls many of which are roadside eateries that cook food in the open using stoves that run on LPG cylinders and kerosene.
Across Action Area III such stalls have sprouted everywhere and the entire width of the service lanes in front of the Elita Garden Vista and Sukhobrishti Housing Complex are blocked by vendors as well as garages.
On February 11, an early morning fire gutted several roadside eateries and shops opposite Sukhobrishti Housing Complex in New Town.
There had been a series of explosions and firemen had later found remnants of LPG cylinders in the debris.
A senior official of the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA), which provides civic services to the three action areas of New Town, said the makeshift stalls that had come on the land that was initially meant for building a stretch of pavement and on a portion of the service lane in front of the DLF New Town Heights complex did not have the licence to operate.
Payel Paul, a resident of an apartment of Elita Garden Vista Housing Complex, said it had become nearly impossible to take their car out as vendors park their vans and carts right outside their gate.
Subhajit Ghosh, a Sukhobrishti resident, said most of the food stalls on the service road in front of their complex had chairs and tables, making it impossible for vehicles to negotiate the stretch.
“The area resembles a haat,” said Ghosh.
A fruit and vegetable vendor said he had been doing business in front of the Sukhobrishti complex for more than eight years.
“We catered to the residents who had moved into this complex long before any market or mall opened in New Town,” Ramzan Mollah said.
An NKDA official said every eviction drive had faced “huge resistance” from the street vendors.
Debashis Sen, the NKDA chairman, said they had constructed hawkers’ markets in several areas that could accommodate 800 vendors.
“We have conducted a survey and will allot stalls to only hawkers those who had settled years back...,” Sen said.