Traders in New Road area staged a demonstration on Wednesday morning against the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC)’s plan to make New Road a vehicle-free zone.
The demonstrators held placards that read ‘Say no to vehicle-free New Road’, ‘We don’t want a New Road without vehicles’, ‘Vehicle-free New Road is a conspiracy, we don’t accept’, among others.
A proposal to declare New Road a ‘No-vehicle Zone’ was presented during a KMC meeting on June 14.
KMC Spokesperson Nabin Manandhar told Setopati that the proposal was presented during the executive meeting but has not been passed.
According to Manandhar, the proposal has been included in the policies and programs that the KMC is set to present on June 24.
The remaining process will move ahead only after the proposal is passed then or with amendments, Manandhar added.
KMC had prohibited parking in New Road area and implemented a pick-and-drop system as part of its plan to turn it into a vehicle-free zone.
The metropolis had also started widening the footpaths in the New Road area as part of the plan.
But the Road Division Office has stopped the KMC's footpath expansion work, and the streets in New Road area have again started filling up with parked vehicles in lack of monitoring and regulation.
