SAMBALPUR: After failing to cope with the problem of growing street vendors who are not only encroaching the roads but acting as impediment in smooth flow of traffic, the Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC) has decided to develop two vegetable markets at Shantinagar and Kamlibazaar area of the city to relocate them.
The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 makes it mandatory to rehabilitate the vendors before they are evicted from the place.
The SMC has now decided to accommodate the vendors operating along Ainthapali-Budharaja road in Shantinagar market while those occupying the roads in Golebazaar area will be accommodated at Kamlibazaar.
Earlier, the SMC had decided to develop a vegetable market for the vendors operating along Ainthapali-Budharaja road on a piece of land belonging to the Irrigation department at Ainthapali.
However, considering the fact that the land was not wide enough but too long, it decided to develop the market at Shantinagar.
SMC Deputy Commissioner Sudhansu Bhoi said the land has been identified near Bhima Bhoi Park in Shantinagar area. Concrete platforms and shed on the land will be constructed soon.
More than 300 vendors can be accommodated in both the markets, he added. Although Kamlibazaar weekly haat is the oldest organised market in the city, it is lying in a state of neglect. But it is believed that after renovation work, the lost glory of the weekly haat can be restored.