Fazilka
In spite of an embargo on cars, trade continues as usual in Fazilka. A car-free zone between 10 am and 7 pm, the Ghanta Ghar market in Fazilka sees no drop in business. Decongested streets allow for better viewing of the wares on display, say shopkeepers
(Photographs by Meeta Ahlawat & Arnab Pratim Dutta)
Fazilka
By day a fruit-seller and by night a poet, Ramesh Kataria was a strident supporter of the municipality's move to declare the market a car- free zone. He says that the sales have soared. Fruits look more fresh; vendors and customers are more relaxed, not having to compete for space with parked vehicles
Before it was declared a car-free zone, this stretch of road, would be colonized by army trucks from the Ferozepur cantonment , then tractors carrying shoppers from out of town would take over
(Photographs by Meeta Ahlawat & Arnab Pratim Dutta)
Fazilka
Bhupendar Singh, retired professor of mechanical engineering studies at IIT Roorkee and architect of this project, rides his self- designed bicycle through the car-free stretches of Fazilka
He had at the outset proposed a car-free zone time from 10 am to 4 pm but many, including shopkeepers and the municipality, saw this as an opportunity to finally rid the market roads of congestion and instead extended the embargo to 7 pm
(Photographs by Meeta Ahlawat & Arnab Pratim Dutta)
Fazilka
Signages like this are a familiar sight for the residents of Fazilka now. Health and road safety, were the two pitches used to popularize the idea of the 'car free zone'. A town spanning 10.29 sq km, Fazilka can easily become a pedestrian's city with vehicles used only to transport goods
(Photographs by Meeta Ahlawat & Arnab Pratim Dutta)
Fazilka
Cycle rickshaws become ecocabs in car-free Fazilka. Their regular patrons are the elderly and the sick
(Photographs by Meeta Ahlawat & Arnab Pratim Dutta)
Fazilka
Ecocab centres in Fazilka work along the lines of dial-a-cab service. Ajit receives 50 calls a day and the trip charges are fixed at a standard Rs 10 for a single passenger and Rs 15 for two. There are five such centres catering to the five different unions of the cycle rickshaw pullers in Fazilka
(Photographs by Meeta Ahlawat & Arnab Pratim Dutta)
Fazilka
The car is out and the cycle is in. Fazilka leapfrogs to the future as some of the advanced cities of Europe still grapple with the idea of going car-free