*Vyomesh Chitravansh
Today, as we stand on the ground of 2026 in the third decade of the 21st century and look at Kashi's traffic system, it is clearly visible that this oldest living city in the world stands on the brink of an unprecedented and highly horrific crisis of a completely paralyzed traffic system. In recent years, especially after the historic and grand rejuvenation of the Kashi Vishwanath Dham Corridor, the number of domestic and foreign pilgrims, spiritual tourists, and researchers visiting Varanasi has recorded an unprecedented multi-hundredfold increase. Where crowds used to gather only during Shravan or special festivals earlier, a sea of people now floods the city's streets every normal weekend. Practically, this cultural and tourism renaissance should be welcomed, and it is indeed being welcomed, but the city's physical and infrastructural framework is proving completely incapable of handling this global pressure. Kashi is essentially known for its narrow alleys, traditional mixed land-use markets, and settlements developed parallel to the Ganges River. When a surge of modern, fast, heavy four-wheelers and uncontrolled e-rickshaws descends upon these ancient and narrow streets, the entire city transforms into a massive 'open-air parking lot'.
Traffic congestion in Varanasi is not merely an event of vehicles stopping on the roads; it is a continuous, invisible assault on the fundamental rights, health, time, and economic productivity of its citizens. A working professional, student, or businessman wishing to travel from Cantt Station to Lanka or Godowlia has to waste an average of 1 to 1.5 hours to cover a distance of just 5 to 6 kilometers. Every day, millions of man-hours are being destroyed at intersections amidst exhaust smoke and the blaring of horns. Due to the continuous, uncontrolled honking at crossroads, noise pollution has reached far above the generally accepted decibel limits. As a result, ailments like high blood pressure, irritability, deafness, and chronic stress are taking the form of an epidemic among local shopkeepers, traffic policemen, and daily commuters. The toxic gases continuously emitted from the engines of vehicles trapped in traffic jams—such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter—keep the city's Air Quality Index (AQI) at dangerous levels. This poisonous smoke is not only wasting fuel but also damaging people's lungs. Varanasi's BHU Trauma Center is considered a lifesaver for patients from Purvanchal, Bihar, and even Nepal. However, when an ambulance carrying a critical patient gets stuck in the horrific traffic jams of Cantt, Lahartara, or Lanka, the patient sometimes breathes their last before even reaching the hospital gates. This situation is a serious human rights crisis for any civilized society.
Whenever Varanasi's traffic problem is reviewed, focus is often centered only on vehicles and wide roads, but one of the most painful roots of this entire crisis is the complete disappearance of footpaths. From the time of the city's Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to the modern Smart City projects, pedestrians are continuously being ignored.
"The footpath is ours" has remained merely an administrative slogan. Whether it is the route from Kachehri to Ardali Bazar and Bhojubir, or the Godowlia-Dashashwamedh route, everything except pedestrians can be found on the footpaths here. The truth is, at the time of constructing most of the city's old roads, there was simply no vision for modern pedestrian pathways. Roads were widened, but not an inch of space was left for pedestrians. Even where the administration did build footpaths (such as under the Varanasi Smart City project), local shopkeepers extended their shop counters 2 to 3 feet forward, turning the footpaths into their private property. Beyond this, illegal parking of two-wheelers for another three to four feet completely blocks the pavement. When no safe space is left for walking for the elderly, women, children, and tourists, they are forced to walk on the main road among vehicles, risking their lives. This automatically narrows the road's 'carriage-way' (the space meant for vehicles) and reduces the speed of the entire road to less than 10 km/h.
Most of Varanasi's major markets—such as Dalmandi, Hanuman Ganj, Chowk, Lanka, and Rath Yatra—are decades old. These markets developed in an era when the main modes of transport were bullock carts, horse carriages (ikkas), bicycles, or walking. At present, however, multi-story commercial complexes, large malls, diagnostic centers, and hospitals have been opened recklessly within these very narrow markets. More than 80% of these commercial establishments do not have any basement or dedicated parking facilities of their own. Even if basement parking is shown somewhere on paper, builders and businessmen have colluded with local authorities to convert that parking space into warehouses, shops, or restaurants. Consequently, the vehicles (both two-wheelers and four-wheelers) of customers and patients visiting these shops or hospitals are parked directly on the footpaths and the main road. When vehicles are parked on both sides of a busy four-lane road, it effectively turns into a mere one-lane or two-lane road, creating a bottleneck.
In Varanasi, keeping with the city’s inherent nature, the level of respect and fear toward traffic rules appears to be almost zero. Vehicles here do not move according to the white lanes painted on the roads, but rather driven with a tendency to shove the vehicle wherever even a tiny bit of space is visible. To save just a few meters of distance or a U-turn, heavy vehicles, motorcycles, and especially e-rickshaws drive at high speeds in the opposite direction against oncoming traffic on the main road. In the name of employment, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of unauthorized and unregistered e-rickshaws have been deployed onto the city's streets. The moment they spot a passenger, they slam on their brakes suddenly right in the middle of the road or at the bends of intersections without giving any signal, bringing the entire traffic behind them to a complete standstill.
In a highly religious and sensitive city like Varanasi, "encroachment under the guise of faith" is a bitter truth that administrative and social circles often avoid discussing on public platforms. Religious sentiments in India are so intense that law-breaking elements use them as a 'protective shield.' If a person opens a tea or betel (paan) shop at a busy intersection or footpath, the municipal corporation squad can immediately demolish it under an anti-encroachment drive. However, if a small platform is quietly built under a tree at the exact same spot to install a religious idol, or a sheet (chadar) is placed over an old structure to give it the form of a shrine (mazaar), the situation changes completely. As soon as the name of 'religion' is attached to a structure, the local administration goes on the backfoot for fear of law-and-order breakdown, communal tension, or hurting religious sentiments. Gradually, iron grills are installed around that small platform, then a permanent concrete room is built, and subsequently, in the name of serving or protecting that religious site, shops selling flowers, offerings,chadars, or religious books crop up by occupying the surrounding footpaths. This commercial expansion eventually becomes the epicenter of large and permanent traffic jams.
There have been many areas in Varanasi where religious encroachment emerged as a major obstacle in the path of development and smooth traffic flow, but recent years have also witnessed some strict administrative and legal steps. Located right next to the Kashi Vishwanath Dham, the Dalmandi market is known for its narrow alleys and dense population. The width of the roads and footpaths here had reduced so much that even walking was difficult. To clear traffic from this core area of the city, the government launched the ₹222-crore Dalmandi Road Widening Project. Under this project, the roads were to be widened up to 17.5 meters, which brought around 146 illegal and partial structures into its scope. Following legal procedures, the administration initiated action to remove these encroachments, which was also greenlit by the Allahabad High Court. Similarly, under the plan to develop the Kashi Railway Station as a world-class 'Integrated Transport Hub,' illegal encroachments standing on land acquired and owned by the railways were removed. The biggest feature and a commendable aspect of this campaign was that it was completely secular and impartial. While on one hand, unauthorized structures built on railway land (the illegal portion of a shrine) were demolished, an illegal Hanuman temple falling in the path of the same corridor was also removed or relocated peacefully after full legal procedures and notices.
The most tragic and paradoxical aspect of the traffic and congestion problem in Varanasi is that the very police department, administrative machinery, and legal fraternity legally bound to clear roads and footpaths of encroachments have their own feet unlawfully planted on public land. In Varanasi, massive encroachment of footpaths and roads has been carried out by the police in the name of building police stations and outposts, and by lawyers and clients in the name of lining up vehicles haphazardly outside the court premises. This is an administrative irony where the protectors of the law (the police) and the advocates of the law (lawyers) themselves appear to be violating the law. The thought-provoking point is: when permanent police structures and illegal parking stands for lawyers' cars stand on the main roads and footpaths themselves, with what face can the administration give moral or legal instructions to a common street vendor to remove their encroachment? Kachehri, Varanasi's administrative, police, and judicial headquarters area, is the biggest example of administrative mismanagement and organized encroachment. A modern multi-level parking lot worth crores of rupees has been constructed by the government right near Kachehri so that the roads can remain clear. However, reality is exactly the opposite. To save parking fees or avoid a short walking distance, most advocates, clients, and others coming to court park their vehicles directly on the main road and footpath instead of using the multi-level parking. Apart from this, tea andpaanshops permanently occupy the footpaths, while notary lawyers' wooden benches, chairs, and typists' illegal cabins permanently hold ground on the Zila Panchayat route inside Kachehri. Two to three rows of vehicles line up from the Circuit House to the Collectorate gate. Due to the clout and influence of the organized unity among lawyers, no junior traffic policeman or municipal corporation squad gathers the courage to tow these vehicles or issue fines to them. Because of this, a beautifully wide road and its footpath have effectively been turned into a tight 6 to 8 feet 'single-lane bottleneck.' Along with Kachehri, police infrastructure has also choked the city's main intersections, footpaths, and paths. A part of the main building of the Bhelupur police station, its boundary wall, and the vehicles parked right outside the station on the road and footpath reduce the width of the main route by up to 40%. Similarly, in front of the Chetganj police station, the boundary wall extending up to twelve feet onto the road, the haphazard parking of police vehicles, and heavy iron barricades permanently placed on the roads and footpaths in the name of security make it impossible for pedestrians to walk. Due to the expansion of the Sigra police station, along with theVajravehicles (riot control vehicles), police cranes, and trucks and cars seized in various cases parked there, the left lane of the road and the footpath have completely turned into a junkyard. The police outposts of Kachehri, Teliabag, Lahurabir, and Gilat Bazar are not built on vast government plots, but right at the mouth of intersections, on triangular turns, or by cutting into footpaths. Due to the permanent construction of these outposts and the area cordoned off outside them in the name of security, the turning radius for vehicles and the path for pedestrians are completely wiped out.
The irony is that even the historic judgments of the High Court and the Supreme Court do not serve as a precedent in the city of Bhole Baba; instead, they lie forgotten, locked away in bundles of paperwork.
In the landmark case ofUnion of India v. State of Gujarat (2009), the Supreme Court issued strict orders to all states in the country that no new construction of any religious structure would be permitted on public roads, footpaths, streets, and public parks. Similarly, in theOlga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985)judgment, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court explicitly stated that under Article 21 of the Constitution (Right to Life), the primary and sole purpose of footpaths and roads is the movement of pedestrians and vehicles. No individual, institution, bar association, or government department has any fundamental or legal right to occupy this public space.
Taking a tough stance on illegal religious structures, the Allahabad High Court in 2016 directed the Government of Uttar Pradesh to remove all illegal structures built on public roads and footpaths without any delay. The Court had remarked that obstructing a public pathway is a living unrighteousness (Adharma). The Allahabad High Court has also laid down a clear legal principle regarding government and police encroachments, stating that "the police cannot violate the law themselves under the guise of maintaining security and law and order." If a police station or an outpost obstructs public traffic or a footpath, it is the duty of the state government to immediately relocate it to another suitable place. However, all these observations exist in Banaras only within the thick pages of law books.
Today, to pull Varanasi out of this multi-dimensional traffic hell, there is a need for a long-term master plan backed by strict administrative willpower, modern technology, and legal enforcement—one that is not just drafted but strictly executed. By implementing "The Footpath is Ours" or the 'Right to Walk', the construction of modern, elevated, and barrier-free footpaths on both sides of all major city roads should be made mandatory. Ramps should be built for the differently-abled to access footpaths, and bollards should be installed to prevent the entry of vehicles. The licenses of shopkeepers who spread their goods onto the footpaths should be suspended with immediate effect. Dedicated 'Smart Vending Zones' away from the main roads should be developed for street vendors and cart-pullers. Implementing special 'legal enforcement' for the Kachehri area, the entire road and footpath from the Circuit House to the Collectorate and District Court gates should be declared a 'Zero-Tolerance No-Parking Zone'. The use of multi-level parking must be made mandatory, and heavy financial fines should be imposed on any vehicle parked on the road, regardless of whether it says 'Advocate', 'Police', or 'Press' on it.
Police stations like Bhelupur, Sigra, and Chetganj should be removed from their current roadside locations and shifted nearby into multi-story 'Vertical Police Station' buildings on government orNazul(state) land. Similarly, concrete outposts built right at the mouth of intersections (such as Kachehri, Lahurabir, Maidagin, Gilat Bazar, Teliabag) should be demolished immediately. In their place, space-saving prefabricated kiosks made of fiber or steel should be set up away from the crossroads. To immediately clear vehicles that are turning into scrap outside police stations, a massive central dumping yard should be built on the outskirts of the city (such as near the main Ring Road). The entry of heavy and medium commercial goods vehicles into the inner and busy commercial areas of the city should be completely banned during the day. The loading and unloading of goods in the markets must be ensured only between 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM. Auto-rickshaws should be divided and categorized zone-wise by issuing a fixed number of permits. To reduce the heavy rush of private vehicles in the city, time-bound public city buses should be operated. Only then might we get some relief from the sudden crowding, jostling, and traffic jams on the roads of Banaras.
In this rapid race for development, providing a modern, smooth, and pollution-free infrastructure while preserving Kashi's antiquity, its heritage, and its soul is the greatest call of the hour. The solution to this horrific problem of traffic and congestion cannot be achieved through civil engineering alone. It demands strict administrative will, the rigorous grassroots implementation of judicial orders without any appeasement or influence of status, the complete restoration of footpaths, and the awakening of a responsible civic sense among the citizens. Only when the protectors of the law (the police), the advocates of the law (lawyers), and the seekers of faith (the public) collectively respect the roads and footpaths, will the true beauty and global glory of this 'Anand Kanan' (Forest of Bliss) remain intact.
http://chitravansh.blogspot.com
Banaras, 13September2026,Sunday
Today, as we stand on the ground of 2026 in the third decade of the 21st century and look at Kashi's traffic system, it is clearly visible that this oldest living city in the world stands on the brink of an unprecedented and highly horrific crisis of a completely paralyzed traffic system. In recent years, especially after the historic and grand rejuvenation of the Kashi Vishwanath Dham Corridor, the number of domestic and foreign pilgrims, spiritual tourists, and researchers visiting Varanasi has recorded an unprecedented multi-hundredfold increase. Where crowds used to gather only during Shravan or special festivals earlier, a sea of people now floods the city's streets every normal weekend. Practically, this cultural and tourism renaissance should be welcomed, and it is indeed being welcomed, but the city's physical and infrastructural framework is proving completely incapable of handling this global pressure. Kashi is essentially known for its narrow alleys, traditional mixed land-use markets, and settlements developed parallel to the Ganges River. When a surge of modern, fast, heavy four-wheelers and uncontrolled e-rickshaws descends upon these ancient and narrow streets, the entire city transforms into a massive 'open-air parking lot'.
Traffic congestion in Varanasi is not merely an event of vehicles stopping on the roads; it is a continuous, invisible assault on the fundamental rights, health, time, and economic productivity of its citizens. A working professional, student, or businessman wishing to travel from Cantt Station to Lanka or Godowlia has to waste an average of 1 to 1.5 hours to cover a distance of just 5 to 6 kilometers. Every day, millions of man-hours are being destroyed at intersections amidst exhaust smoke and the blaring of horns. Due to the continuous, uncontrolled honking at crossroads, noise pollution has reached far above the generally accepted decibel limits. As a result, ailments like high blood pressure, irritability, deafness, and chronic stress are taking the form of an epidemic among local shopkeepers, traffic policemen, and daily commuters. The toxic gases continuously emitted from the engines of vehicles trapped in traffic jams—such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter—keep the city's Air Quality Index (AQI) at dangerous levels. This poisonous smoke is not only wasting fuel but also damaging people's lungs. Varanasi's BHU Trauma Center is considered a lifesaver for patients from Purvanchal, Bihar, and even Nepal. However, when an ambulance carrying a critical patient gets stuck in the horrific traffic jams of Cantt, Lahartara, or Lanka, the patient sometimes breathes their last before even reaching the hospital gates. This situation is a serious human rights crisis for any civilized society.
Whenever Varanasi's traffic problem is reviewed, focus is often centered only on vehicles and wide roads, but one of the most painful roots of this entire crisis is the complete disappearance of footpaths. From the time of the city's Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to the modern Smart City projects, pedestrians are continuously being ignored.
"The footpath is ours" has remained merely an administrative slogan. Whether it is the route from Kachehri to Ardali Bazar and Bhojubir, or the Godowlia-Dashashwamedh route, everything except pedestrians can be found on the footpaths here. The truth is, at the time of constructing most of the city's old roads, there was simply no vision for modern pedestrian pathways. Roads were widened, but not an inch of space was left for pedestrians. Even where the administration did build footpaths (such as under the Varanasi Smart City project), local shopkeepers extended their shop counters 2 to 3 feet forward, turning the footpaths into their private property. Beyond this, illegal parking of two-wheelers for another three to four feet completely blocks the pavement. When no safe space is left for walking for the elderly, women, children, and tourists, they are forced to walk on the main road among vehicles, risking their lives. This automatically narrows the road's 'carriage-way' (the space meant for vehicles) and reduces the speed of the entire road to less than 10 km/h.
Most of Varanasi's major markets—such as Dalmandi, Hanuman Ganj, Chowk, Lanka, and Rath Yatra—are decades old. These markets developed in an era when the main modes of transport were bullock carts, horse carriages (ikkas), bicycles, or walking. At present, however, multi-story commercial complexes, large malls, diagnostic centers, and hospitals have been opened recklessly within these very narrow markets. More than 80% of these commercial establishments do not have any basement or dedicated parking facilities of their own. Even if basement parking is shown somewhere on paper, builders and businessmen have colluded with local authorities to convert that parking space into warehouses, shops, or restaurants. Consequently, the vehicles (both two-wheelers and four-wheelers) of customers and patients visiting these shops or hospitals are parked directly on the footpaths and the main road. When vehicles are parked on both sides of a busy four-lane road, it effectively turns into a mere one-lane or two-lane road, creating a bottleneck.
In Varanasi, keeping with the city’s inherent nature, the level of respect and fear toward traffic rules appears to be almost zero. Vehicles here do not move according to the white lanes painted on the roads, but rather driven with a tendency to shove the vehicle wherever even a tiny bit of space is visible. To save just a few meters of distance or a U-turn, heavy vehicles, motorcycles, and especially e-rickshaws drive at high speeds in the opposite direction against oncoming traffic on the main road. In the name of employment, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of unauthorized and unregistered e-rickshaws have been deployed onto the city's streets. The moment they spot a passenger, they slam on their brakes suddenly right in the middle of the road or at the bends of intersections without giving any signal, bringing the entire traffic behind them to a complete standstill.
In a highly religious and sensitive city like Varanasi, "encroachment under the guise of faith" is a bitter truth that administrative and social circles often avoid discussing on public platforms. Religious sentiments in India are so intense that law-breaking elements use them as a 'protective shield.' If a person opens a tea or betel (paan) shop at a busy intersection or footpath, the municipal corporation squad can immediately demolish it under an anti-encroachment drive. However, if a small platform is quietly built under a tree at the exact same spot to install a religious idol, or a sheet (chadar) is placed over an old structure to give it the form of a shrine (mazaar), the situation changes completely. As soon as the name of 'religion' is attached to a structure, the local administration goes on the backfoot for fear of law-and-order breakdown, communal tension, or hurting religious sentiments. Gradually, iron grills are installed around that small platform, then a permanent concrete room is built, and subsequently, in the name of serving or protecting that religious site, shops selling flowers, offerings,chadars, or religious books crop up by occupying the surrounding footpaths. This commercial expansion eventually becomes the epicenter of large and permanent traffic jams.
There have been many areas in Varanasi where religious encroachment emerged as a major obstacle in the path of development and smooth traffic flow, but recent years have also witnessed some strict administrative and legal steps. Located right next to the Kashi Vishwanath Dham, the Dalmandi market is known for its narrow alleys and dense population. The width of the roads and footpaths here had reduced so much that even walking was difficult. To clear traffic from this core area of the city, the government launched the ₹222-crore Dalmandi Road Widening Project. Under this project, the roads were to be widened up to 17.5 meters, which brought around 146 illegal and partial structures into its scope. Following legal procedures, the administration initiated action to remove these encroachments, which was also greenlit by the Allahabad High Court. Similarly, under the plan to develop the Kashi Railway Station as a world-class 'Integrated Transport Hub,' illegal encroachments standing on land acquired and owned by the railways were removed. The biggest feature and a commendable aspect of this campaign was that it was completely secular and impartial. While on one hand, unauthorized structures built on railway land (the illegal portion of a shrine) were demolished, an illegal Hanuman temple falling in the path of the same corridor was also removed or relocated peacefully after full legal procedures and notices.
The most tragic and paradoxical aspect of the traffic and congestion problem in Varanasi is that the very police department, administrative machinery, and legal fraternity legally bound to clear roads and footpaths of encroachments have their own feet unlawfully planted on public land. In Varanasi, massive encroachment of footpaths and roads has been carried out by the police in the name of building police stations and outposts, and by lawyers and clients in the name of lining up vehicles haphazardly outside the court premises. This is an administrative irony where the protectors of the law (the police) and the advocates of the law (lawyers) themselves appear to be violating the law. The thought-provoking point is: when permanent police structures and illegal parking stands for lawyers' cars stand on the main roads and footpaths themselves, with what face can the administration give moral or legal instructions to a common street vendor to remove their encroachment? Kachehri, Varanasi's administrative, police, and judicial headquarters area, is the biggest example of administrative mismanagement and organized encroachment. A modern multi-level parking lot worth crores of rupees has been constructed by the government right near Kachehri so that the roads can remain clear. However, reality is exactly the opposite. To save parking fees or avoid a short walking distance, most advocates, clients, and others coming to court park their vehicles directly on the main road and footpath instead of using the multi-level parking. Apart from this, tea andpaanshops permanently occupy the footpaths, while notary lawyers' wooden benches, chairs, and typists' illegal cabins permanently hold ground on the Zila Panchayat route inside Kachehri. Two to three rows of vehicles line up from the Circuit House to the Collectorate gate. Due to the clout and influence of the organized unity among lawyers, no junior traffic policeman or municipal corporation squad gathers the courage to tow these vehicles or issue fines to them. Because of this, a beautifully wide road and its footpath have effectively been turned into a tight 6 to 8 feet 'single-lane bottleneck.' Along with Kachehri, police infrastructure has also choked the city's main intersections, footpaths, and paths. A part of the main building of the Bhelupur police station, its boundary wall, and the vehicles parked right outside the station on the road and footpath reduce the width of the main route by up to 40%. Similarly, in front of the Chetganj police station, the boundary wall extending up to twelve feet onto the road, the haphazard parking of police vehicles, and heavy iron barricades permanently placed on the roads and footpaths in the name of security make it impossible for pedestrians to walk. Due to the expansion of the Sigra police station, along with theVajravehicles (riot control vehicles), police cranes, and trucks and cars seized in various cases parked there, the left lane of the road and the footpath have completely turned into a junkyard. The police outposts of Kachehri, Teliabag, Lahurabir, and Gilat Bazar are not built on vast government plots, but right at the mouth of intersections, on triangular turns, or by cutting into footpaths. Due to the permanent construction of these outposts and the area cordoned off outside them in the name of security, the turning radius for vehicles and the path for pedestrians are completely wiped out.
The irony is that even the historic judgments of the High Court and the Supreme Court do not serve as a precedent in the city of Bhole Baba; instead, they lie forgotten, locked away in bundles of paperwork.
In the landmark case ofUnion of India v. State of Gujarat (2009), the Supreme Court issued strict orders to all states in the country that no new construction of any religious structure would be permitted on public roads, footpaths, streets, and public parks. Similarly, in theOlga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985)judgment, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court explicitly stated that under Article 21 of the Constitution (Right to Life), the primary and sole purpose of footpaths and roads is the movement of pedestrians and vehicles. No individual, institution, bar association, or government department has any fundamental or legal right to occupy this public space.
Taking a tough stance on illegal religious structures, the Allahabad High Court in 2016 directed the Government of Uttar Pradesh to remove all illegal structures built on public roads and footpaths without any delay. The Court had remarked that obstructing a public pathway is a living unrighteousness (Adharma). The Allahabad High Court has also laid down a clear legal principle regarding government and police encroachments, stating that "the police cannot violate the law themselves under the guise of maintaining security and law and order." If a police station or an outpost obstructs public traffic or a footpath, it is the duty of the state government to immediately relocate it to another suitable place. However, all these observations exist in Banaras only within the thick pages of law books.
Today, to pull Varanasi out of this multi-dimensional traffic hell, there is a need for a long-term master plan backed by strict administrative willpower, modern technology, and legal enforcement—one that is not just drafted but strictly executed. By implementing "The Footpath is Ours" or the 'Right to Walk', the construction of modern, elevated, and barrier-free footpaths on both sides of all major city roads should be made mandatory. Ramps should be built for the differently-abled to access footpaths, and bollards should be installed to prevent the entry of vehicles. The licenses of shopkeepers who spread their goods onto the footpaths should be suspended with immediate effect. Dedicated 'Smart Vending Zones' away from the main roads should be developed for street vendors and cart-pullers. Implementing special 'legal enforcement' for the Kachehri area, the entire road and footpath from the Circuit House to the Collectorate and District Court gates should be declared a 'Zero-Tolerance No-Parking Zone'. The use of multi-level parking must be made mandatory, and heavy financial fines should be imposed on any vehicle parked on the road, regardless of whether it says 'Advocate', 'Police', or 'Press' on it.
Police stations like Bhelupur, Sigra, and Chetganj should be removed from their current roadside locations and shifted nearby into multi-story 'Vertical Police Station' buildings on government orNazul(state) land. Similarly, concrete outposts built right at the mouth of intersections (such as Kachehri, Lahurabir, Maidagin, Gilat Bazar, Teliabag) should be demolished immediately. In their place, space-saving prefabricated kiosks made of fiber or steel should be set up away from the crossroads. To immediately clear vehicles that are turning into scrap outside police stations, a massive central dumping yard should be built on the outskirts of the city (such as near the main Ring Road). The entry of heavy and medium commercial goods vehicles into the inner and busy commercial areas of the city should be completely banned during the day. The loading and unloading of goods in the markets must be ensured only between 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM. Auto-rickshaws should be divided and categorized zone-wise by issuing a fixed number of permits. To reduce the heavy rush of private vehicles in the city, time-bound public city buses should be operated. Only then might we get some relief from the sudden crowding, jostling, and traffic jams on the roads of Banaras.
In this rapid race for development, providing a modern, smooth, and pollution-free infrastructure while preserving Kashi's antiquity, its heritage, and its soul is the greatest call of the hour. The solution to this horrific problem of traffic and congestion cannot be achieved through civil engineering alone. It demands strict administrative will, the rigorous grassroots implementation of judicial orders without any appeasement or influence of status, the complete restoration of footpaths, and the awakening of a responsible civic sense among the citizens. Only when the protectors of the law (the police), the advocates of the law (lawyers), and the seekers of faith (the public) collectively respect the roads and footpaths, will the true beauty and global glory of this 'Anand Kanan' (Forest of Bliss) remain intact.
http://chitravansh.blogspot.com
Banaras, 13September2026,Sunday
