GUWAHATI: A survey was conducted by G Plus in which 100 people were asked for their opinion on the Walking Zone project. 100 respondents were randomly selected from a cross section of people comprising regular commuters of the area, residents across Guwahati and the owners of the business establishments in and around the area. The findings reveal that the walking zone has failed to attract recurrent visitors.
The declining rate of recurring footfall in the walking zone was identified as 24 percent of the people surveyed who had never visited the walking zone on a Sunday earlier. 26 percent had visited the zone 1-5 times, 6 percent had visited 5-10 times, around 10 percent had visited more than 10 times and approximately 34 percent had visited the stretch of road only once before.
Moreover, the people had similar opinion on the impact of the project on the riverfront beautification of the city. 42 percent people are of the opinion that the walking zone serves little purpose in this regard whereas 38 percent of the people believe that it addresses the issue and the remaining 20 percent are unsure of whether it has served any purpose to it at all.
Despite much hype created while launching the Walking Zone project in October 2017, in which the stretch of MG Road from Bharalumukh to Sukleshwar Temple was dedicated to pedestrians every Sunday (from 4pm to 10 pm), the move in the last few months has managed to woo only half of the initial footfall.
While 50 percent expressed their satisfaction over the move, 38 percent expressed dissatisfaction and the remaining 12 percent chose to wait and see its impact.
The survey, which aimed at providing an insight into the activities and people participation on Sundays, was done as a follow-up to the multiple stories covered by G Plus on the same issue in the final quarter of last year. Things have hardly changed since then.
The people had a mixed opinion on the impact of the walking zone in the city, with the positive replies (at 36 percent) only slightly edging ahead of the negative replies (at 34 percent). The remaining 30% noticed no impact at all. “It is a stupid idea which doesn’t have any positive impact. The idea should be dropped,” said one respondent, Sachin Jain.
Even though approximately 48 percent of the people are in favour of the walking zone being anchored to the particular area, 40 percent of the people feel that business is badly affected due to the move while the remaining 12 percent are not affected by the space at all. “It is hampering business,” said Ajay Murarka, a 45 year old businessman of the area.
Parking problems also add to the woes of the people who plan to visit the walking zone on the Sundays. Around 18 percent are affected by massive traffic jams around that area, lack of parking spaces contribute to another 18 percent, while overcrowding of the area adds to 10 percent and illegal street vending are just the tip of the iceberg at 14 percent. 40 percent of the people have not faced any such problems as of now.
Even though a majority of the people has expressed their displeasure at the execution of the project, people have still come up with suggestions to improve the state of affairs.
“There should be added events to keep the crowd engaged,” said a resident of the area. “It should be planned in a better way, with adequate parking facilities and proper traffic management,” said Pawan Sharma, another resident.
The project had been taken up to address the issue of the riverfront beautification of the city.
The project, which was started as a pilot project initially, simply turned out to double up the problems for the dwellers of this proposed Smart City. The project, which was visualized to provide the citizens a space to walk, socialize and enjoy the street food and witness the glory of the mighty Brahmaputra, needs major amends for its proper revival. The administration had promised to improve the infrastructure of the adjoining areas to cope up with the additional diverted traffic but no drastic steps have been taken in this regard so far.
