Road and pavement-grabbing shacks are allegedly growing uncontrolled in New Town — an otherwise planned township of parks, boulevards and residential highrises.

Several service lanes as well as pavements of the township are being blocked by vendors and shops selling anything from vegetables to screen guards of cellphones across all three action areas.

Metro criss-crossed the township and saw that in front of every major housing complex and office buildings, shacks blocked walkways and portions of the main roads.

In Action Area I, a row of pavement-grabbing stalls with plastic sheets line the newly-restored walkway behind Nazrul Tirtha.

The stretch behind Nazrul Tirtha that leads to the Rail Vihar Complex in AF Block has more than 150 stalls encroaching on pavements.

The area behind the New Town bus stop, in front of Home Town Mall near the clock tower, both pavements outside the DLF II complex, around 2.3km from New Town police station, have also been taken over by stalls.

Telegraph picture

In Action Area II, food stalls line the pavements opposite the Axis Mall.

In Action Area III, service lanes in front of the Elita Garden Vista and Sukhobrishti Housing Complex are blocked by vendors as well as garages where vehicles are repaired.

Leena Paul, a resident of an apartment of Elita Garden Vista Housing Complex, said it had become nearly impossible to take their car out as vans were parked right outside their gate.

Abhijit 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 first residents who had moved into this complex long before any market or mall opened in New Town,” Ramzan Mollah said.

A New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) official said every eviction drive had faced “huge resistance” from street vendors.

Debashis Sen, the NKDA chairman, said they had constructed hawkers’ markets in several areas that could altogether accommodate 800 vendors.

“We have conducted a survey and will only allot stalls to hawkers who had settled years back...,” Sen said.