Sunday, 24 March 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The market areas in Dehradun on Saturday were flooded with people engaged in last-minute purchases of colours, sweets and other goods for Holi to be celebrated on Monday. Both shopkeepers and the locals expressed concerns over the traffic congestion caused by customers’ last minute shopping spree. They further emphasised that the use of vehicles within the markets should be discouraged to prevent congestion and enhance the shopping experience.
Significant traffic congestion was observed in major markets including Hanuman Chowk, Raja Road and Paltan Bazaar. Dwelling on this, a local resident residing near the market Sanjana Pal claimed that last-minute shopping had resulted in heavy traffic congestion in the main market. On weekends, when many people have time off from work, they seemed to wait till the last minute to shop for the festival of Holi. Additionally, the heavy reliance on vehicles by everyone contributed to the traffic issues, causing inconvenience to the residents living near the market, she said.
Cloth shop owner Ricky Nayan said that he has a shop at Macchi Bazaar and his house is located near Prince Chowk. He usually reaches the shop from his house in 10 minutes. However, due to the Holi festival, last-minute shoppers created heavy traffic, causing him to be approximately half an hour late to his shop. He emphasised that to reduce traffic congestion, authorities should prohibit shoppers from bringing vehicles to the market area during festivals.
“I engage in last-minute shopping on the weekend during every festival, given my time off from work. However, the experience proves to be quite challenging due to heavy traffic in the market area. Despite the narrow roads, I make it a point to park my vehicle outside the market vicinity to ease congestion. Unfortunately, not everyone does so, leading to traffic congestion as shoppers navigate through the market on their vehicles. Consequently, this congestion inconveniences visitors without vehicles, creating a problematic situation,” said a local resident Riya Saklani.
