SMC launches 'Operation Clean-up' in textile market

Surat: The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) and the city police have jointly launched 'Operation Clean-Up' to remove encroachments and bottlenecks from the city's highly congested Ring Road area, which houses country's largest wholesale textile market.
The drive was launched from Friday to clear both sides of the main thoroughfare from encroachments in the form of tea, paan and food stalls and illegal constructions on the footpaths and other spots.
On Saturday, dozens of shops at the Radhey textile markets were demolished to open up the road for vehicle parking.
City engineer and head of the Central Zone, Jatin Shah told TOI, "Our aim is to clear Ring Road from encroachments and allow the smooth flow of traffic. All the paanwalas, tea stalls and food stalls have been removed from both the sides of Ring Road. These people were adding heavily to the traffic chaos on Ring Road"
Shah added, "The tempo owners have been strictly asked to park their vehicles within the yellow parking lines on both the sides of the road. The police has been strictly asked to tow the tempos found flouting the parking norms."
Dozens of illegal constructions from Maan Darwaja to Sahara Darwaja main road were razed by the teams from the Central zone of the SMC in presence of the city police in the last two days.
Sources said more than 90 roadside eateries and paan shops were removed from the entire stretch on Ring Road from Sahara Darwaja to Kamela Darwaja.
The entire exercise is aimed at freeing up the two square kilometre area from Maan Darwaja to Sahara Darwaja from the bottlenecks hampering the smooth flow of traffic. The civic officials have marked the yellow parking strips on both the sides of the road to allow the owners to park the tempos on the sideways for the loading and unloading of the textile goods.
Ring Road areas house more than 165 textile markets. There are around 65,000 textile shops in these markets having the daily turnover of Rs 110 crore.
Around 2.5 crore meters of unfinished fabric is transported to the textile markets from the weaving units on daily basis by over 4,000 tempowalas.