VMC Clears Roadside Encroachments From Beniyabagh Crossing to Hadha Sarai

Varanasi Municipal Corporation’s enforcement wing spent Monday clearing the carriageway from Beniyabagh crossing through to Hadha Sarai market, lifting shop goods, construction-material piles and an illegal roadside transport set-up that residents said had been choking traffic.

The drive followed complaints of chronic jams on the stretch. Enforcement staff loaded goods onto vehicles and removed grit, sand and brick stacks that had been sold from the road edge. An unauthorised transport pocket operating on the same alignment was also taken down, according to the civic account of the action.

Police were present as the team worked. Shopkeepers objected and there was a brief confrontation, but the force on site kept the clearance moving rather than letting it stall into a prolonged stand-off. By afternoon the road edge looked bare where displays and temporary stalls had stood.

Ward councillor Indresh Singh, who reached the spot after word of the action spread, said the corporation had moved because the jam complaints were real. Illegal transport on the road and open sale of building material had left little room for ordinary traffic, he said. Clear access, in his view, mattered both for customers trying to reach Hadha Sarai market and for residents whose homes sit off the same lane.

Beniyabagh sits on a busy inner-city grid where commercial spillover onto asphalt is a daily temptation. Temporary displays sell quickly; they also shrink two-way movement to a single reluctant file of scooters and autos. Hadha Sarai’s market end depends on that feeder road. When it clogs, footfall drops and emergency vehicles lose minutes they do not have.

Municipal encroachment drives in Varanasi often follow the same arc: complaint, enforcement visit, removal, and a slow creep-back of goods within days unless beat staff keep returning. Monday’s operation does not by itself guarantee a permanently open verge. It does reset the line for now and puts shopkeepers on notice that the Beniyabagh–Hadha Sarai strip is under active watch.

For the corporation, the test is follow-up. A one-day lift without night and morning checks tends to undo itself. For traders, the practical demand is usually a lawful alternative pitch rather than the carriageway itself. That negotiation sits outside Monday’s removal order, but it will shape whether the cleared asphalt stays clear through the festive weeks ahead.

As of Monday evening, the civic claim was limited and concrete: goods and material were lifted, the illegal transport pocket was closed, and the road from Beniyabagh chauraha to Hadha Sarai was made passable again after the jam complaints.

Residents living in the lanes off Hadha Sarai said the immediate gain was simple: room for an ambulance or school van to pass without climbing the footpath. Traders who lost roadside display space will press for marked alternative pitches; without that, enforcement teams expect a familiar cycle of return visits before the festive rush.