AHMEDABAD: Imagine a lazy, wintry Sunday evening at the Vastrapur Lake. Only, there are no cars or auto-rickshaws, no traffic jams, no obnoxious emissions, no honking of horns tearing your ear drums. Just, pedestrians and cyclists thronging the area.

A great idea indeed, if the area is declared a "no-car zone" on Sunday evenings. And, Amdavadis are sure to lap it up, given the overwhelming response to a question TOI asked its readers: Would they support a car-free day' once a week? A large number wrote back saying they would leave their cars home one day a week. The idea was mooted at the TOI-AMA round table

And, authorities like traffic police and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) already have had their thinking caps on for a unique concept Walkers' Mall' to be organised on some of busy stretches of the city.

"We have been thinking of organising walkers' mall' for quite sometime. This concept reserves entry of cars into specific stretches as both entry and exit routes are barricaded and visitors are allowed to park their vehicles in a parking lot adjacent to the barricade," says joint commissioner of police (traffic), Atul Karwal.

"We need to meticulously analyse each road stretch and make sure there is alternative traffic route plan, study the traffic laws that would apply to this zone and take the opinion of local residents before the walker's mall zone is declared. A security map also needs to be drawn for the area," adds Karwal.

Municipal commissioner IP Gautam says there are four to five stretches that have the potential of being declared a car-free zone'. "We are working on it. But before that we have to pass a notification, start an awareness campaign and even declare the alternative road plans for specific stretches. We have to take into account accessibility to the place via different modes of transport," he says.

Authorities say the area could also develop into a safe place for entertainment of children and a food zone.