Marking out Mumbai’s hawking spaces delayed, as BMC waits for citizens to join panel

It will be some time before hawkers are allotted demarcated spaces across the city. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has not been able to finalise and mark out hawking pitches as the zonal town vending committees (TVCs), which have to identify the areas, have not been formed fully as they still have vacant posts reserved for NGOs and citizens.

Last week, the BMC called for fresh applications to zonal TVCs, the third time since January due to lack of response the previous two times.

Nidhi Choudhari, deputy municipal commissioner in charge, said: “We have not got suitable responses from NGOs. It is necessary to fill the eight posts on each of the seven zonal committees that represent citizens in order to finalise the hawking zones.”

After the city-level TVC was formed earlier this year to facilitate localised planning, the BMC realised that TVCs have to be constituted at zonal levels too.

The city TVC already has 20 members in place — 12 officials and representatives from hawkers unions, and eight NGO and citizen representatives — but its work can only begin after the hawking pitches are identified and marked by zonal TVCs. The city TVC has conducted two meetings so far to discuss the issue.

The BMC has already appointed officials and representatives from the hawkers’ unions in the zonal TVCs.

Choudhari said: “Considering Mumbai’s size, the BMC needs area-wise TVCs. These will do the field work and mark hawking pitches, and then submit the draft to the city TVC for approval. We cannot hold any more TVC meetings until all members are finalised.”

The civic body has finalised 85,891 hawking zones across 1,366 roads in the city, but specific hawking pitches have not been marked yet.