Street vending zones in Hyderabad change face of roads

Hyderabad: Can street vendors give your colony’s roads the much needed facelift? The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s experiments with street vending zones in two areas, Vinay Nagar Colony in Masab Tank, and Sanath Nagar, by demarcating street vending zones, indicates that yes, such zones might actually ensure not just livelihood for vendors, but some cleanliness […]

Hyderabad: Can street vendors give your colony’s roads the much needed facelift?

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s experiments with street vending zones in two areas, Vinay Nagar Colony in Masab Tank, and Sanath Nagar, by demarcating street vending zones, indicates that yes, such zones might actually ensure not just livelihood for vendors, but some cleanliness and hygiene on the streets where they operate.

Both these roads used to be dirty with garbage scattered all over the roads. There were stray animals searching for food in the garbage and the mosquito menace was increasing by the day. Coupled with the apathy of the people who continued to

Dump garbage, the streets became areas that local residents themselves avoided. However, things began to change when the civic body built a vending zone comprising of 12 shops on the pavement in Vinay Nagar Colony and another vending zone in Sanath Nagar that could accommodate 18 shops.

According to officials, though the shops are not yet operational, the dumping of garbage has stopped, and the places are no longer an eyesore.

“Despite taking up sanitation activities regularly at these two places, within hours they used to become untidy due to dumping of garbage. After the vending zones were built, cleanliness has drastically improved. Once the stalls are handed over to beneficiaries, the sanitation issues at these places will be completely resolved,” a GHMC official said.

Recalling the poor sanitation conditions, a civic body official said that due to the garbage scattered all over the Vinay Nagar Colony road, the people used to face different kinds of hardships.

“There is a hospital located in the same locality. Such dumping of garbage was a major hygiene issue. People coming to the hospital too began complaining apart from local residents who pointed out that people from outside were coming and throwing garbage there. The issue has finally been resolved,” he said.

At Sanath Nagar meanwhile, there was traffic congestion and people visiting the Sunday market near the place were put to inconvenience due to the heaps of garbage strewn all over. That picture is now passé.

“Plans are underway to build a public washroom too near the Sanath Nagar vending zone,” a GHMC official said.

Meanwhile, enthused with the outcome of the vending zones in these two areas, the civic body officials are now identifying places in other parts of the city too to build similar street vending zones. The plan is to address issues related to traffic congestion, pavement encroachment and sanitation by building such zones, simultaneously benefiting the street vendors and hawkers as well.

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