‘With wires all over, Chandni Chowk is a time bomb’

New Delhi: The mess of electric wires dangling over the Chandni Chowk area are akin to “time bombs”, risking lives of people, observed the Delhi high court on Thursday. The court also observed that there was a lack of access in the walled city in case of any emergency as fire tenders and ambulances as they could not reach there.

A bench of justices G.S. Sistani and V. Kameshwar Rao made the remarks, while directing the Delhi police and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to comply with its order to stop encroachments at Chandni Chowk area in the walled city.

“We expect that the previous orders issued by the court will be adhered to,” the high court said.

“These are nothing but time bombs. You cannot look up and cannot see the sky clearly. There are so many wires hanging literally everywhere. A number of wires hang over shutters of every shop. We talk of heritage, but are not ready to look at grassroot level,” the bench said.

Suggesting that authorities and hawkers should think out-of-the-box, the bench said whoever had visited Chandni Chowk in the past 50 years or even before would know that the area was the same since then. “Only vehicles have increased. Hawkers were always there,” it said and listed the matter for hearing on November 17.

It said the situation should improve in such a manner that in case of emergency, fire tenders and ambulances should reach there. It is difficult at present. While hearing a petition filed by the Chandni Chowk Sarv Vyapar Mandal against encroachments in the area, the bench observed a Supreme Court order declaring Chandni Chowk as a no-vending zone has to be complied with.

Delhi police's standing counsel Rahul Mehra said drives were being undertaken to make the area encroachment-free, but vendors resurface. Advocate S. Ralli, appearing for the Mandal, said there was no doubt several drives were carried out, but the situation has, unfortunately,  remained unchanged.