The mess of electric wires dangling over the entire Chandni Chowk area were akin to “time bombs”, putting at risk the lives of people, the Delhi High Court today said.

The court also observed that there was a lack of access in the walled city in case of any emergency as fire tenders and ambulances could not reach there.

A bench of justices G S Sistani and V Kameshwar Rao made the remarks while directing the Delhi Police and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to comply with its order to stop encroachments at the Chandni Chowk area in the walled city.

“We expect that the previous orders will be complied with in letter and spirit,” it said.

“These are time bombs. You cannot look up and cannot see the sky clearly. There are so many wires hanging everywhere. A number of wires are hanging over shutters of every shop. We talk of heritage but are not ready to look at grassroot level,” the bench said.

Suggesting that authorities and hawkers should adopt some out-of-the-box thinking and regulation, the bench said whoever had visited Chandni Chowk in the last 50 years or even before would know that the area was the same since then.

“Only vehicles have increased. Hawkers were always there,” it said and listed the matter for November 17.

As carried in PTI