Kozhikode: Vehicle ban test fails on SM street

KOZHIKODE: To test how people would react the district administration took away the barricades to stop vehicles entering the SM Street and withdrew cops for two days. But the result was shocking as people forgot the ban on vehicular movement here after its renovation.

"We could see a lot of vehicles moving through SM Street during morning evening hours, though banned between 7 am to 10 pm. People just turned a blind eye to it when the enforcement was slightly relaxed," said district collector U.V. Jose.

"Now we will be putting up more police barricades to stop them, besides placing more surveillance cameras to track violators."

Auto drivers parking their vehicles in front of the street say violations were rampant for last few days, but there were no officials to stop them. When they reported it to the commissioner's office, they said there were only a few officials as a majority of them are on VIP duty.

The district administration has directed the police department to put more force in various parts of the street at least till people completely stop taking vehicles inside during the ban hours.