Commercialisation of residential areas concerns residents in Ludhiana West constituency.
Despite being home to prime localities and benefitting from a substantial share of Smart City projects, residents say the area is losing its peace and character rapidly. The expansion of commercial outlets into residential zones, stray animals, parking shortages, and unchecked encroachment are driving frustration among citizens. "The very reason we chose Sarabha Nagar was for peace," said Rahul Verma, a long-time resident.
"Now every street has shops or offices. Instead of stopping this, the authorities concerned are declaring residential roads as commercial zones."
His concerns are echoed across other upscale neighbourhoods including BRS Nagar, Kitchlu Nagar, Udham Singh Nagar, Model Town, Model Gram and Club Road. Many of these were originally planned by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), which had demarcated residential and commercial areas clearly.
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Over time, it handed over these localities to the municipal corporation for maintenance — and residents say that is when the balance began to tilt.
"There's no difference now," said Kapil Arora of BRS Nagar. "The main road is so busy with commercial activity that I take interior lanes just to reach my own house."
A municipal corporation official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, admitted the shift was often initiated by the residents themselves.
"People open shops or clinics in homes and then apply to have roads declared commercial," he said. "Several of these proposals are under govt review currently." The rising commercialisation is not only disturbing residents' peace of mind but also undercutting the function and viability of market areas.
Locals complain that mixed-use chaos deters customers and contributes to traffic bottlenecks.
Adding to the concern is the lack of updated data with the civic body.
It conducted the last official survey of commercial violations in 2019, revealing 7,053 violations across 73 town planning schemes — 2,683 of those concentrated in just 60 of those schemes. Since then, it has carried out no fresh survey, leaving citizens frustrated by the absence of regulatory oversight.
With more LIT-developed areas now being transferred to civic authorities, residents fear the same pattern will repeat: peaceful neighbourhoods transformed into unregulated commercial zones, with little room left for families or silence.
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