Uplift project causes closure of businesses

Dozens of vendors, daily wage earners forced to vacate stalls due to remodelling work

RAWALPINDI:

The closure of roads due to the Kachehry Chowk Remodelling Project has brought small businesses, stalls, and shops inside and around the district courts area to a complete standstill.

Daily wage earners have started vacating their kiosks and stalls and are now searching for new business spots in the city.

A large number of kiosks, stalls, and shops have been emptied, as the closure of routes has disrupted all commercial activity. With no public transport or motorcycle access, several visitors have reverted to cycling — reminiscent of the 1990s — to reach the courts.

Over 100 kiosks, stalls, hawkers, and small shops around Kachehri Chowk have lost their customers due to blocked pedestrian and transport access. The closure of the petrol pump near the main court entrance has also shut down adjacent tuck shops, tyre puncture services, and general stores.

Five tea and food stalls have also been vacated, while the removal of bus stops on both sides of Kachehri Chowk has wiped out 33 small businesses, including grocery, tea, pan-cigarette, juice, barber, photocopy, Easypaisa, and tuck shops.

For the past few days, traders have locked up their shops and moved their goods to other areas of the city.

The court's once-vibrant evenings have also faded. Lawyers who used to stay in their chambers until 10pm now prefer to leave early due to poor road conditions.

Many have opened temporary evening chambers in markets and homes instead.

As a result, the District Courts, once bustling from 7am to 10 pm, now appear deserted after 3pm Few lawyers and clerks remain, leaving at sunset.

Litigants, especially women, have stopped visiting in the evenings and prefer meeting lawyers in their city chambers.

Lawyers Sabtain Bukhari and Raja Mudassir said female clients and prominent litigants no longer visit in the evenings, forcing lawyers to shift to Saddar and other markets. Shopkeepers Azmat Satti and Farhad Khan, who ran photocopy and cigarette shops at the main gate, said only four or five customers come daily now.

"This project will take up to a year. We earn daily wages; now we are shifting to Jhanda Chichi market," they said, adding that their families had run these shops for decades, but their livelihood seems to have ended with the underpass construction.