Staff reporter
Guwahati: Choked roads, vanishing footpaths, and sprawling hawker zones have become part of Guwahati’s daily reality. Now, with the Town and Country Planning Department launching a six-month survey to address the city’s chronic congestion, many residents are questioning whether this will lead to genuine change or simply repeat the cycle of failed initiatives.
The new assessment will focus on some of the city’s busiest and most chaotic corridors like GS Road, RG Baruah Road, AT Road, and Zoo Road, with the aim of identifying designated vending zones and organized parking spaces.
“We are studying all the major problem areas of the city, such as GS Road, to earmark proper vending zones and parking areas that will not inconvenience commuters,” a department official told this newspaper, requesting anonymity.
But past experience has left little room for optimism. Previous drives, largely spearheaded by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), have rarely gone beyond temporary clean-ups and symbolic evictions. Even though the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 requires a comprehensive vendor survey before any regulation or eviction, Guwahati has yet to complete this crucial step.
Instead, officials have relied on sporadic eviction campaigns — including stepped-up night-time operations in recent weeks — that clear sidewalks and under-flyover spaces only for vendors to reappear within days. Similar efforts in 2018, 2020, and 2022 saw the same outcome.
For citizens, the consequences are immediate and severe. Traffic snarls linked to encroachments often delay commuters by 40–50 minutes. Pedestrians, forced onto the roads, face higher accident risks, while women, senior citizens, and children find navigating crowded walkways particularly difficult.
“There must be accountability,” said Bedanta Baruah, a resident of Hatigoan Tiniali. “How many surveys will you conduct? Where are the results of the previous ones? Why should taxpayers bear the brunt of official negligence?”
As the fresh study begins, urban experts warn that Guwahati’s problems cannot be solved with reports and committees alone. What the city needs, they say, is a sustained, enforceable plan that balances livelihoods with law, and urban growth with effective governance.
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