The famed hill town is ringing in the new year by throwing open traffic on a stretch of road only used by pedestrians for the past decade.

This decision of Darjeeling police comes at a time when pedestrians and tourists alike rue the lack of space to walk in the town.

A stretch of HD Lama Road in Darjeeling is an arterial route used by pedestrians to connect from the lower area of the town to its upper reaches. The stretch connects Chowk Bazar with the Clubside area near the famous eatery Keventer’s.

“For the past few days vehicles are now being allowed to move on this stretch. This is simply crazy,” complained a local resident.

Until now, vehicles could come till half of HD Lama Road — up to Hotel Seven Seventeen — and go back the same way to Robertson Road. This was largely because the other half of the road is packed with pedestrians.

Police officers said that the new initiative was taken to avoid traffic snarls. “We decided to allow vehicles that used to drop tourists till halfway to exit from the other end of the road to reduce traffic snarls,” said a senior traffic official.

He also added that “officially” traffic was never closed on the other half of the road and that “trucks ply along the other half of HD Lama Road after 8pm”.

Local residents said that the police had stopped traffic on a section of HD Lama Road for over a decade.

“It is obvious that decision-makers do not walk in the town. Else they would have understood the inconvenience this decision has caused,” said another resident. When vehicles move on the road, pedestrians get squeezed between two vehicles, he said.

Asked to comment on this, the police official said that if needed the situation would be “reviewed”.