THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Street vendors have started mushrooming in the city leading to major encroachments on footpaths. As a result, pedestrians are forced to walk on the roads, leading to accidents. To put an end to the street vendor menace that has plagued the footpaths, the city corporation has decided to launch special zones for street vendors in the city.
A few places identified for vending zones are the RKV Road near Museum, Karamana and Palode. There is also a plan to construct an underground plaza at the Gandhi Park in the East Fort area which will be modeled on the Palika Bazaar in New Delhi. The vending zones to come up at RKV Road near Museum will accommodate about 100 vendors who will be issued ID cards, Mayor K Sreekumar, said.
The corporation is also planning to redevelop the Connemara Market at Palayam where the corporation intends to modernise the market and devote the ground floor completely for vendors, accommodating about 500 vendors. Earlier, the Town Planning wing had prepared a list of road and footpath encroachers, parking violations and unauthorised constructions across the city. Major violations were reported in places such as East Fort, Peroorkada, Poojappura and Ulloor.
More than 150 violations were found from these zones and footpath encroachments have been reported from Pettah, Perunthanni, Fort and Chalai.“After the inspection is over, violations related to encroachments may increase up to 500,” said Palayam Rajan, chairman, Town Planning Standing Committee. Traffic police have also raised their concerns on the encroachments which have led to pedestrian accidents at busy spots in the city. Photographs of the vendors who have set up shops encroaching footpaths are taken.
The city corporation has carried out two surveys of street vendors to issue licenses before rehabilitation. In the first survey, 1,884 vendors have been identified out of whom 509 persons have been issued ID cards. In the second survey, 1,500 vendors were identified. The bylaw for the street vendors as per the latest gazette notification of the state government is yet to be finalised. Vending zones, restricted vending zones and no vending zones will be identified based on the volume of traffic and the number of pedestrians passing through the street.