Another effort by DSCC to make footpaths free
News Desk : dhakamirror.com
After repeated failures to stop street vendors from taking over capital city streets, Dhaka South City Corporation will implement a new system to ease traffic congestion. DSCC will classify city streets into three categories – red, yellow and green.
Red zones are completely taboo for hawkers. However, they can set up their stalls along sidewalks and streets in yellow and green zones on conditions, depending on the time and day of the week.
“No hawker will be allowed from next week on very important streets marked red. We will start the hawker eviction drive from those streets next week,” said Fazle Noor Taposh on Wednesday after laying the foundation stone of a 10-Storied marketplace on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital.
He said hawkers will be rehabilitated in the 10-storeyed marketplace. All hawkers on streets and footpaths marked red will be evicted, he added.
Dhaka South’s Urban Planning Department will implement the road marking, sources at the corporation said.
“This has been expected for a long time. This market is very much necessary for hawkers of this area,” said the mayor.
Mayor Taposh expects the marketplace to be completed in two years and that hawkers can run their business successfully in this spacious market.
Md Abu Nasher, spokesman for the DSCC, said their work on categorizing the roads is ongoing.
Various steps have been taken over the past 15 years, but they have not worked.
In 2007, Dhaka City Corporation launched Holiday Markets, special markets for street vendors, open at 20 locations around the city on the weekends. However, this initiative became a flop within a few months.
In 2017, DSCC made a list of around 6,000 street vendors in different areas and provided Tk 3 crore for their relocation. However, this plan also failed. Evicted traders from various footpaths in places like Gulistan and Motijheel returned.
DSCC then set up 10 designated places for hawkers – such as Baitul Mukarram mosque area, Segunbagicha, Dilkusha and near Ideal School and College – for holiday markets. But street vendors didn’t show much interest as they wanted more crowded places, a DSCC official said.
Occupied footpaths are thought to be a major cause of traffic congestion, as pedestrians are often forced to use main roads to avoid crowded sidewalks.
