new delhi nitin lopez a firsttime visitor to karol bagh from mumbai was taken aback when he found a pedestrianfriendly shopping plaza with places to sit and watch the world go by my image of karol bagh was of an extremely congested space he said enjoying ice cream with his two daughters in the middle of ajmal khan road but its so different even mumbai does not have such marketsdelhiites too would be as surprised as lopez in karol bagh today when you descend from the delhi metro station to ajmal khan road neon orange traffic cones sieve away the motorists from those on foot the noise of car engines and horns slowly fades as you encounter a cleared road with benches set down in the middle for visitors the slow pace of redevelopment in delhi can leave you pessimistic but here is an example of how it is just a matter of political will marvelled rajesh puri a shopper from shalimar baghthe pedestrianisation and traffic barricading have so far been only been carried out on the stretch from the metro station to gaffar chowk and security guards manually turn vehicles away at the entries to the road dharmendra kumar the guard at gaffar chowk said that most people comply with the directions though the odd twowheeler manages to get past sometimes a madamji on a scooty will argue so i just join my palms and let her proceed dharmendra said jocularly if resignedlythe north delhi municipal corporation has banned onstreet parking here while handing over the shastri park parking lot to the market association the 5060 traders who used to park their vehicles in front of their shops have shifted to shastri park said murali mani head of the ajmal khan vyapar mandalmani added that pedestrianisation had not affected the footfall there are around 350 shops in the project area and around 30000 visitors come here every day there hasnt been a negative impact so far but we are monitoring the situation he said he said there were plans to install fountains and mist makers to make the stretch a comfortable plaza for shoppersthe market association has initiated valet parking at the arya samaj road padam singh road and tank road intersections though the response hasnt been too enthusiastic raman kumar jha a valet standing behind the blue board informing of the facility said that only 34 requests are made every day because very few know about the valet service after the traders association from the nearby gaffar market also started demanding similar pedestrianisation a corporation official said that onstreet parking on the left of the stretch from gaffar chowk to db gupta road might be cancelled on may 25 he said that the scheme might also be extended to the markets at kirti nagar and kamla nagarhowever there still are hurdles yet to be crossed resolving which could prove useful in the new projects free erickshaws have not been introduced and the illegal hawkers remain a concern several