The whole of Puddapukur Road had turned into a bazaar. Police removed the encroachers on Tuesday.

The result: a pavement already narrow because of hawkers’ stalls became narrower as those on the road so far moved in.

Some complained. Some were confident that the arrangement would return to where it was in a matter of days.

Plastic crates with vegetables, hundreds of water bottles, bricks, sacks and plastic sheets were removed from the road and dumped on the footpath during the clean-up.

Hawkers' stalls that had spilled on Puddapukur Road shifted to a pavement on Tuesday. Bishwarup Dutta

After several years, vehicles moved along both flanks of Puddapukur Road, some said. Earlier, one narrow lane would be left for motorists.

“We will soon find a way to ensure vehicles move in both directions along Puddapukur Road,” an officer at Bhowanipore police station said.

Within an hour of the clean-up, a section of vegetable vendors picked up the wares that were dumped and set up stalls on the footpath.

Visitors to the Jadu Babu Bazar were surprised to find Puddapukur Road cleared of encroachers. Some wondered if it would last long.

Two kilometres from Puddapukur Road, a similar drive left the footpath along the boundary wall of SSKM Hospital cleaner with police and Kolkata Municipal Corporation teams removing blue and black plastic sheets hanging from the stalls.

When the drive was launched on Tuesday morning, most owners had not opened their stalls. A few who were present hurried to remove some of their wares lying underneath the plastic sheets as workers continued pulling them down. Utensils, wooden tables and plastic chairs, too, were removed from the footpath during the drive.

“We will continue with this drive over the next few days so pedestrians don’t face any trouble walking through the footpath,” said a police officer. “Those who were yet to remove the sheets have been asked to do so within two days.”