Agra – Cantonment Board Agra was established in the year 1805. Sadar Bazaar at the eastern end was well planned and the army personnel were highly respected. Children were easily given goods on credit from ice cream and confectionery shops because the shop owners knew that their dues would be repaid after presenting monthly bills to the parents. It is said that an army officer ordered a bicycle for his son. People were surprised to see the shop owner carrying a bicycle on his shoulders to his home, two kilometers away from Sadar Bazaar. When people asked, Lalaji replied, “It is Colonel Saheb’s bicycle, if the tires had become dirty then I would have been left with nowhere.” Such was the reputation of the army in those days.
The main mode of transport was the tanga and there were regular tanga stands like today’s taxi stands. There were very few cycle rickshaws. Tanga stands had their own charm. Horses often chewed grain in buckets hung around their necks. When the family had to travel somewhere, it was considered the children’s job to call the tanga.
Officers generally traveled on bicycles. Those soldiers who were not able to buy bicycles used to rent them from Sadar Bazaar at the rate of four annas per day. Sanitation rules were strictly enforced by the Cantonment Board. It was necessary to prominently display Municipal Corporation tax tokens on all cycles, rickshaws and horse-drawn carriages. Tangas and rickshaws also required dippers and kerosene lamps to move at night. All civilian bungalows and houses were required to have a specific approved design and no modifications were allowed.