The Chennai Corporation has fixed November 5 as deadline for the street hawkers, vendors and traders on Usman Road and Pondy Bazar to shift to Pondy Bazar Hawkers Complex. It should be noted that the Corporation has so far announced three deadlines – August 15, September 15 and October 10. However, as the traders had asked the civic body to grant them more time keeping in view the ongoing festive season, it had given them time till November 5.
Around 250-300 traders will be shifting to the complex on November 6, even if the work has not been completed, a few traders say. With regard to the remaining traders, they say they do not have any problem in moving but they need more time. “We do not have any choice but to move to the complex,” the traders added. Around 50 per cent of the work has been completed. At present, woodwork, painting, and shutter works are going on, traders pointed out. “The complex was constructed before five years. The traders have hired workers and are undergoing partition and related works. The traders are expected to occupy the complex after Deepavali,” official sources from Corporation said. The hawkers complex in Pondy Bazaar came up following a committee headed by retired judge J. Kanakaraj in 2003, who presented a plan to the Madras High Court to regulate hawking.
