Ahmedabad's Relief Road gets back its footpaths

The city police traffic department, in a massive operation, has permanently altered the way the city's bustling Relief Road looks. In a massive operation involving more than 100 cops, the foothpaths on the road were cleared of encroachments, with help from the Ahmedabad Municipal corporation (AMC).

Deputy commissioner of police (Traffic), Ahmedabad city, MM Anarwala told DNA that the operation to clear the footpaths on Relief Road was conducted and on Monday and almost all the encroachers' belongings were seized.

Another cop in the traffic department said that when footpaths are encroached upon, it creates problems in the movement of traffic and eventually results in bad traffic management. "Ultimately, we are blamed for not performing our duties effectively. "We will keep trying to get the encroachers removed, till they finally leave the footpaths," the cop said.

Speaking about the operations, Anarwala said that five teams of the traffic department were active on the Relief Road, and as many as five trucks full of articles of belonging to encroachers were seized.

Anarwala also said that they will try to ensure that the articles seized are not released for a month. "If the articles are released, the encroachers will be back to their original spots, on the footpaths," he said.