Civic body to increase vending zones for hawkers

Chennai: A few weeks ago, the GCC issued a notification earmarking 905 streets and roads as vending zones and more than 4,700 streets as non-vending zones.

“The vending and non-vending zones are demarcated based on a street vendor enumeration conducted in 2017. We identified more than 27,000 street hawkers, who have been given ID cards and vending certificates. Only those with certificates will be allowed to sell at vending zones,” an official said.

The official added that the enumeration should be done once every five years to identify new street hawkers and give them ID cards and vending certificates. “We’ve just commenced an enumeration, during which new hawkers will be identified and new zones will be identified,” he said.

Meanwhile, the civic body has started placing boards at the vending zones. In Teynampet, there are 56 vending zones. Boards have been placed at all the 56 spots.

If street hawkers sell at non-vending zones, the official said, “Police action will be taken against them, and their vending certificates will be revoked.”

As per the data, the Royapuram zone has the highest number of vending streets with 122. Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Alandur and Adyar have 112 vending zones each. Valasaravakkam zone has 103 streets as vending zones. Ward-level engineers identified the vending zones based on traffic flow, road width, etc.

While hearing a case against hawkers, a few days ago, the Madras High Court directed the civic body to implement the vending and non-vending zones at the earliest.