RAWALPINDI: Rawalpindi is confronting a growing challenge of illegal encroachments, turning the city’s once spacious bazaars into congested markets. The issue has spread beyond main bazaars to adjacent streets, with encroachments recurring shortly after removal efforts.
Assistant Commissioner (City) Dr Eman Zaffar said the administration has adopted a multipronged approach to tackle the problem. Measures include converting the crowded Raja Bazaar into a pedestrian zone, providing alternate travel routes, and ongoing anti-encroachment drives to restore spaciousness.
Highlighting a major crackdown, Dr Zaffar emphasized the importance of civic sense among residents. She noted that population growth, urbanisation, and mixed commercial-residential areas complicate the issue, requiring sophisticated management.
Recent drives cleared city areas by confiscating 155 truckloads, 3,123 carts, 831 counters, 197 illegal platforms, and removing 264 concrete encroachments from locations including Raja Bazaar, Murree Road, and Sadiqabad.
A single recent crackdown removed 522 truckloads and 4,572 concrete and soft encroachments from the city’s 11 major bazaars.
To prevent the return of encroachments, Rawalpindi Cantonment Board CEO Ali Irfan Rizvi has deployed enforcement teams in bazaars to monitor and promptly remove illegal carts, stalls, and structures.
Heavy machinery was used to demolish concrete ramps and sheds during the latest drive in Tench Bhatta, Dhamial, Kamal Abad, Choohr, and Misrial areas.
