Nagpur: For residents, festival crowds increasingly mean blocked entrances and restricted access to their own homes. Frustrated by the daily inconvenience, city-based advocate Hemant Tambat took matters into his own hands and barricaded the road outside his house.Tambat’s residence in Vivekanand Nagar is located a couple of blocks from two major Ganpati attractions — the Disneyland-themed Vivekanand Nagar Ganesh Mandal and the Harry Potter-themed Ramkrishna Nagar Ganesh Mandal.Thousands of devotees visiting the two pandals each day park their vehicles along the narrow lanes in front of houses, leaving residents with little room to enter or exit their properties.Tambat said he installed temporary barricades outside his house to prevent visitors from parking there. He even tied large bamboo poles to the existing pillars to make the barricades more prominent.Tambat told TOI that he had repeatedly asked visitors to move their vehicles when they blocked his entrance, but the problem persisted. “Vehicles parked outside residential properties often remain unattended despite traffic police being deployed in the area to manage the festival rush,” he said.“Every evening, I struggle to get my vehicle out. People park right in front of my house and disappear to visit the pandals. I can’t stand outside my house like a watchman the whole night, so I set up this barricade,” Tambat added.
