KOCHI: Amid plans of development in a metropolitan city like Kochi, rehabilitation of street vendors still remains a question. Though the corporation, in March 2025, published a list of 2,347 vendors in need of rehabilitation, the process has been delayed further with no effective steps so far.
The rising number of unauthorised street shops in the city has been a major concern for the past several years. In 2022, the High Court had directed the corporation to evict such street vendors. Subsequently, the corporation had taken steps to resolve the matter, but the political conflicts following the release of lists caused further delays.
As per the report published by the corporation in 2024, only 4% of street vendors in the city run the shops in kiosks distributed by the corporation and some of them even extended their vending space by making additions to the facility.
“The process to remove unauthorised street vendors within the city limits is under way. We have identified more than 1,000 street vendors who can be relocated. The allocation of zones for them is ongoing. Once it is completed, we can take necessary action regarding the same,” said Seena Gokulan, health standing committee chairperson.
Meanwhile, the LDF-led opposition has been criticising the corporation for not expediting the rehabilitation process.
“After the first list was published in 2024, the corporation did not take up the matter seriously, due to which relocation processes were getting delayed. The number of unauthorised street vendors are also on the rise, causing difficulty to residents and commuters in the city,” said V A Sreejith, parliamentary party leader. He urged the mayor to allocate zones to the identified street vendors without any delay.
Meanwhile, Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) chairperson D Dhanuraj pointed out that street vendor rehabilitation and removal of unauthorised ones were a challenging task across the state.
“About two years back, we conducted a study of street vending in the corporation. It is difficult to implement the rehabilitation without a committee to oversee the matter. We had identified locations suitable to be transformed as street vending zones.”
He added that instead of simply relocating them, the corporation should envisage setting up separate areas like food street or Tibetan Market in New Delhi, so that it would attract more people.
While the actual plan of the corporation is to make Kochi free of unauthorised street shops, it seems, it would be a distant dream, considering the pace of the ongoing process.