LAHORE, May 3: The City District Government of Lahore reopened the Gawalmandi Food Street on Friday after necessary renovation/rehabilitation work in a short span of time.

District Coordination Officer Rizwan Mahboob had directed the quarters concerned to revive the city’s cultural Gawalmandi Food Street through a viable plan.

The DCO visited the food street and heard financial problems the local traders had been facing after it was closed by former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif a few years back.

“We appreciate shopkeepers/traders who have played a pivotal role in reviving the food street by assisting the CDGL in renovating/rehabilitating their eateries, etc,” the DCO said while speaking to the audience after he inaugurated the place along with a group of special children.

He said the main objective of getting the street inaugurated through special children was to attain blessings of Almighty Allah. “As special kids have prayed here, I am sure that Allah Almighty will help us in increasing income of the food street,” Mr Mahboob said.

He said since the CDGL was committed to maintaining natural, traditional, cultural and historical beauty of the city, it would continue reviving, rehabilitating and renovating the city’s entire historical buildings and places under the Dilkash Lahore Project.

The Gawalmandi food street was considered to be a centre of the city’s traditional food. In 2011, the then PML-N Punjab government had shut down the street on the pretext that it blocked roads/passages for motorists and citizens, including foreign tourists, visiting the area.

After closure of the street, the shopkeepers made several efforts for getting the place restored, but to no avail. They also held protest demonstrations and alleged that the PML-N had closed the food street to teach a lesson to its political rivals.

After the closure of the food street, the then government had established another food street on the Fort Road in January last year.

The Gawalmandi Food Street had emerged in the city’s horizon during Gen Musharraf’s regime, but it met a sad end when the Data Ganj Bakhsh Town administration pulled down its decorative gates in the past.

Although the ruling PML-N in Punjab had termed the operation necessary for the smooth flow of traffic in the area, the street was the main source of livelihood for around 10,000 people who called the action their victimisation on a political basis.