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Mushrooming vending zones turn a menace

BHUBANESWAR: Vending zone concept, which has so far been claimed to be a ‘successful’ initiative of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) for making roadsides of main thoroughfares of capital city encroachment- free, is now slowly turning out to be a major nuisance for the corporation.

Till date, vending zones have been created by herding roadside vendors to nearby open space and allowed them to construct their own temporary shops within the premises.

However, the BMC recently has come out with a public announcement banning ‘unauthorised’ construction of vending zones in the city. The public notice was issued after vending zones were noticed to have come up overnight on public places adding to the traffic chaos further.

Fortune Tower, one of the numbered landmarks of Bhubaneswar, that houses offices of many multinational companies has recently found a vending zone right on its entrance point.

Similarly, small traders are encroaching upon most of the vacant space, which could have been used as parking space. It is simple to create a vending zone. “Keep temporary shops in a row, paint those shops with green colour and put up a board titled BMC Vending Zone,” says Akshaya Samal, a resident of Madhusudan Nagar.

Commissionerate police has long been expressing its displeasures the way vending zones are allowed to be set up along the main roads. Police argue that vending zones obstruct free traffic movement since those who come to purchase something have no other options, but to park their vehicles on roads. BMC and Commissionerate also confronted on the issue on many occasions.

“We have received several specific objections about locating vending zones in the city. To prevent further unauthorised construction, we have come out with such a public notice,” says D. K. Singh, who is holding additional charge of BMC Commissioner.

However, experts blame BMC for the nuisance. After setting up more than 35 vending zones and rehabilitating about 2000 roadside vendors, BMC had announced to prepare a policy. Now five months have passed since the announcement was made, but BMC has not readied a proper vending zone policy to back the effective implementation of the concept.

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