Chowrasta, the famous promenade of Darjeeling, is free of hawkers after a decade.
The Darjeeling municipality on Wednesday declared the entire Chowrasta area a no-vending zone, with the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) chief executive Anit Thapa reaching an amicable solution with the hawkers.
The GTA has decided to come up with a multi-purpose construction which includes a children’s park, a station for senior citizens and a place for busking on the slopes of Chowrasta. The hawkers, too, would be accommodated in this structure which is coming up on the slope adjacent to Thron Cottage in Chowrasta.
“We arrived at an amicable solution with the hawkers. The construction will be done without felling a single tree on that slope. We plan to complete the project within three to four months so that the hawkers can be shifted there,” said Thapa.
The hawkers have started clearing the Mall Road stretch that leads towards the Mahakal temple. Hawkers along this stretch had refused to move out earlier.
These 106 hawkers — initially the number was less — were “temporarily” given space on this road in 2014 when some of them were evicted from Nehru Road which houses popular eateries like Keventers and Glenary’s.
The authorities had removed them for four days from April 1, 2023, in view of the G20 meeting that was being held in Darjeeling. Thapa and the Darjeeling municipality refused to let them put up stalls after the expiry of four days.
They had been given space to put up their stalls on the premises of Gorkha Rangamanch Bhavan.
The hawkers, however, citing poor business, returned to the Mall Road on December 28, 2023, and continued to occupy the space.
Earlier, 182 hawkers who had set up shops along the Thron Road in Chowrasta were also removed by the authorities.
With Chowrasta hawker-free, the Darjeeling municipality declared the area a no-vending zone. “We have declared the area as a no-vending zone from today,” said Dipendra Thakuri, chairman, Darjeeling municipality.
Thapa directed the municipality to ensure that the no-vending provision was strictly implemented henceforth.
