Relief from heat: Temporary sheds for street vendors in Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has planned to set up temporary sheds for street vendors and provide them designated places for business in the inner lanes of different localities.
The move is aimed at not only organising the street vendors, but also providing them shelters so that they get respite from the increasing heat. The civic body also wants to maintain cleanliness around areas where street vendors operate, BMC officials said.
“The matter was discussed and approved in the last public works standing committee meeting of the civic body. Sanitation is a major issue with such vendors. They do their business by the roadsides and litter the areas,” Amresh Jena, chairman of the committee, said.
Jena said this practice of the street vendors poses a hindrance in maintaining cleanliness of the city. “The temporary shed system for street vendors has been adopted in Rourkela city and it is quite a success. We have decided to replicate it here,” he said. Jena said that the civic body wants to achieve a dual goal by providing the temporary sheds to street vendors. “With the sheds, the vendors will get respite from the heat while it will become easier for us to carry out our sanitation activities,” he said.
Officials said they also want to shift the vendors from the arterial roads of the capital. “They often do business by encroaching on the main roads, footpaths and cycle tracks. We will shift them to the inner lanes near their vending places,” a BMC official said.
People welcomed the BMC’s move. “It is not right to remove the vendors from their vending zones. The authorities need to ensure their proper rehabilitation. Organising the vendors in such a way is a quite an impressive move by the civic body,” Biraja Patra, a resident of Sailashree Vihar, said.