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As one ventures into the bustling area
of
Avenue or Chandni Chowk, one will definitely get acquainted
with the shoddy buildings and the chaos there.
Hawkers, who eat up the pavements,
greet visitors with counterfeit CDs, mobile cases and other duplicate
electronic items, which are available within a meager price range of
Rs 10 and this can climb high to anywhere between Rs 500 and Rs 800.
It all began when a horde of daring
entrepreneurs set up the IT channel market in the lively area of GC
Avenue, offering Kolkata her first IT retail hub. With the biggest
channel partners located in the area primarily because of its sheer
attraction for a better price for IT equipment, the focus has now
been steadily going towards the new locale, Chandni Chowk.
As business began to thrive in the area
owing to its strategic location, the area gradually became a favorite
destination for the migrant workers from the neighboring states of
Bihar and Orissa. They put up on the pavements at night in
anticipation for a meager job the next day. Gradually, it became a
hotspot for hawkers as commutation in the area boomed.
Traffic size has of course increased 10
folds, since the time when GC Avenue was taking up the shape of the
then-emerging IT hub of Kolkata. Now, under the prevailing
circumstances, the situation has worsened.
“Traffic congestion is one of the
biggest problems in the area. Throughout the day, the congestion
remains as heaps of smoke from the vehicle exhaust-pipe continues to
pollute the air,” said KL Lalani of Lalani Infotech, one of the
stalwarts in the IT channel market in the East.
As pollution and concerns over the
traffic movement in the city continues to be the biggest nightmare of
the environment activists, the noise on the streets is deafening.
Kolkata is known for recording the
highest SPM level in the air in all the metros, with GC Avenue and
Chandni Chowk together contributing the highest percentage of the
recorded SPM followed by Dalhousie, Esplanade and Central Avenue.
Apart from the increasing trauma of the
pollution level, parking woos add up to the worries. “Parking is
perhaps the acute of all problems here. There is too little space for
parking and after 10'o clock in the morning, one can hardly find
any space left over for parking. Whenever I am late, I prefer to take
a taxi to go to office rather than my car knowing it too well that
the car could not be parked there,” Lalani added. And also the
thriving business of illegal hawking and unhygienic conditions
prevailing to and fro is adding to the problem. Partners in the area
have long been complaining about illegal hawking eating up the
aesthetics of their shops, offices and showrooms. Sharing his views
on illegal hawking, Narendra Dhanuka of Galaxy Computech had
previously complained, “On account of these hawkers coming up with
illegal fixed structures on the pavements and by-lanes, the lanes are
always congested and one can hardly unload supplies there. It is
indirectly impacting the business, as well as the aesthetics of the
attractive showrooms we are coming up with.”
However, known for its popular culture
of trade unionism, channel partners hardly dare to face the wrath of
the union leaders by opposing illegal hawking. The government of West
Bengal had taken up a drive to clean the city off hawkers way back in
1998, but then the ruling party losing dramatically in the municipal
elections.
Analyzing the location of GC Avenue, it
is clear that the area in central Kolkata was never designed to
handle crowd of such a gigantic stature. The area is cluttered with
narrow lanes connecting major roads to North Kolkata and clearly, the
Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) never thought about the upcoming
shortage of parking space and clusters of hawkers.
“There is an urgent need for a
flyover in the area between GC Avenue and CR Avenue. Also, a Parking
Plaza is a must have for the area,” he added.
So far, the local IT association,
Compass has not thought about addressing these issues to KMC.
However, now, channel partners in the area including the ex-office
bearers of Compass opine that the association now needs to step in to
address these issues.
“I think that the local association,
Compass needs to step in to address these issues. Until now, Compass
has not thought of taking up these issues, but these problems needs
to be addressed,” said Dhanuka, one of the past secretaries of
Compass.
Echoing the same feeling, Lalani,
Founder President of Compass said, “I think that now, Compass needs
to step in to let KMC know about these issues. We have a united and
well established association here and I feel that it is time for
Compass to step in to make GC Avenue and Chandni Chowk a much better
place.”
The DQ Week has been intiating a campaign for IT hubs, the campaign has
already covered
Place and
Road