IN WHAT is being described as one of the most significant administrative strikes against urban congestion, the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday launched a massive anti-encroachment drive across the historic Old City’s markets. For decades, these arterial lanes—stretching from Somwara to Ibrahimpura—had been choked by illegal extensions, making even pedestrian movement a Herculean task.Moving away from the routine "token" inspections, the BMC squad arrived with a formidable convoy and heavy police reinforcement at 11:00 AM, just as the markets of Somwara and Lakherapura were beginning to bustle with morning shoppers.

 

The presence of high-ranking officials, including Additional Commissioner Varun Awasthi and SDM Deepak Pandey, signaled that the day’s proceedings were far from a mere formality. Over the next six hours, the team systematically purged illegal structures from Lakherapura’s bangle market, the corridors of Jama Masjid, and the iconic Sarafa Chowk.

 

9 truckloads of ‘Illegal Expansion’ seized The scale of the crackdown was evident by 5 pm, as the civic body had filled nine large trucks with confiscated inventory. The seizure went beyond mere display boards; the squad dismantled permanent iron sheds, heavy-duty benches, and mannequins that had effectively annexed public footpaths into private shop floors.

 

In high-density zones like Guliyadai Street, where traders had long converted pavements into extended storefronts, the authorities showed zero tolerance, physically clearing the bottlenecks that had become a ‘blight’ on the market’s safety and aesthetics. By evening, the transformation was stark. Roads that were previously gasping for space were suddenly wide enough for smooth vehicular and pedestrian flow