Among the many problems that India is facing today, one of the current burning issues is Encroachment. The illegal act of extending roof structures that intrude narrow streets and construction of houses and shops on public property is carried out for one’s personal benefit. Technically, there is no fundamental or legal right to encroach upon a public road or a street or a highway and raise a construction of any kind. 

 

Nowadays, removal of encroachment has become a necessity especially for the people living in mega cities like Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Traffic is one of the major issues faced due to encroachment particularly during the peak hours of the day. It is leading to congestion on internal roads and that is not due to the increase in a number of vehicles but due to illegal construction on roads blocking the vehicular movement.  People usually tend to walk short distances because of traffic issues but there is again a threat posed to the pedestrian movement due to the extended structures be it shops or residences as well as the vendors or street hawkers on the road side which are engaged in practices of quiet encroachment where they occupy urban spaces as a means to reproduce themselves. In some of the very compact and narrow lanes, due to the built up on the edge of the road there is no ample space left for the parking of vehicles because of which people tend to park on the road often resulting in traffic jams.  

 

Taking current examples in Ahmedabad, one of the most developing areas being South Bopal, which has rapidly expanded with residential and commercial complexes in the past few years has also proliferated rampant encroachment by roadside vendors and washed out roads make it tough for commuters during peak traffic hours, particularly in the evenings. 

 

Also, the 200-year-old market of Manekchowk is losing sheen because of authorities’ inability to check encroachments and lack of ownership among locals who don’t take pride in having a planned market. The bustling area of Chowk comprises several markets. Both the sides of the roads are occupied by encroachers including fruits, vegetables, clothes and household article sellers. Though the road passing through the market itself is narrow, some of the regular shops of the area have also extended their shops and displayed their items on the road. 

Due to this, frequent altercation keeps happening between commuters and the shopkeepers for removing articles. Street vendors are occupying around 90% of the road in some areas of the market and the situation is such that no one can even think of driving a car through this area during daytime. With very little space for commuting, there is virtual chaos and regular traffic jams have become the common feature of this area.        

              

To solve the problem of encroachment here, AMC officials have approached leaders of street vendors and squatters many times, but every time encroachers have declined their offer to shift them to an alternative place and are not ready to move. However, AMC has become a mute witness to this growing problem of encroachment and the demolition drive has become a pretension. The removed shops are set up once again the next day after the drive is over. The traders have met authorities a number of times to get the area freed from encroachers but nothing has been done. Still there are some areas where effective steps have been taken to demolish encroachment. 

 

Talking about Ahmedabad, a few times ago the estate department of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had started an anti-encroachment drive in the Vadaj and Navrangpura areas of the city. The Civic authorities removed two makeshift sheds and 10 street carts while seizing some 64 objects that were blocking traffic movement along the road.  

The Teams of New West zone had removed 2208 sqm of plinth construction, 1431 sqm of commercial sheds, 118 cross walls and 76 pukka construction. In the sixth zone of the city 94 kms of zones were freed from encroachments. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) in its drive against encroachment on roads removed some 3833 structures in the new west zone between sarkhej cross roads and the APMC yard. The drive aimed to remove encroachments and free up the space for pedestrian and parking. Demolitions were carried out in Makatampura wards in Juhapura. 

 

 

It is said in a Geographical review that Urban encroachment on rural land will be a serious problem only near major metropolitan areas, where most of the built-up area is already concentrated.  

Also, encroachment issues defer in developing and developed cities as well as in planned and unplanned cities. So, we can see that encroachment problems are not faced rather we can say are almost negligible in planned cities like Gandhinagar and Chandigarh and that is because there are already allotted spaces for commercial buildings, parking spaces etc whereas in comparison to them, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai etc face severe issues of encroachment. This is very much because these are not planned cities and as the population keeps on increasing, the city expands haphazardly thereby occupying urban spaces and major portions of public roads leaving very little space for the commuters. And so, the management of urban spaces has become essential. 

 

Therefore, if this widespread encroachment on public lanes is removed, these spaces can be used for public welfare like cycling and jogging tracks, there can be a proper allotment of parking spaces, footpaths can be constructed further enhancing the pedestrian movement and pavement blocks and garden spaces can be created for tree plantations which is a necessary step as pollution in today's time has reached its alarming stage.