Reclaiming pedestrians’ space in Guwahati

The rising number of street vendors occupying pavements in Guwahati has caused huge in convenience for pedestrians. It has also added to traffic congestion as pedestrians are compelled to walk on the busy roads, reducing the effective carriageway for vehicles. It is baffling to city residents that Guwahati Municipal Corporation authorities are turning a blind eye to their woes. The GMC authorities recently notified 81 vending zones, but this number is inadequate to address the problem as more vending zones are required to accommodate street vendors at designated places. According to GMC, the notified vending zones will accommodate around 6,000 street vendors, while about 50 more vending zones will be notified later. The city's residents’ need for fresh vegetables, fish, and other food products and various household goods is met by supplies from street vendors, but the unchecked growth of unauthorised vendors creates nuisances and poses sustainability challenges. Designated vending zones with adequate infrastructure support and parking space are essential. A section of buyers parking their vehicles by the roadside to buy goods from street vendors further narrows the carriageway, leaving barely enough space for one vehicle to pass along some of the busy roads. With such unauthorised markets of street vending on both sides of the roads remaining open from morning to evening, the traffic problem becomes acute during school and office hours as there will be buyers throughout the day to buy goods from these vendors. Vending zones in a city must add to the aesthetics of the cityscape. In Guwahati, mushroom growth in vending zones is common; most areas of the city are eyesores. A section of authorised food vendors has introduced modern food trucks and food carts, which add to the aesthetics of the cityscape, but due to the lack of adequate space in designated zones, such aesthetics get lost. Eviction of street vendors without the creation of an adequate vending zone and completion of the registration to limit the number of authorised vendors is not legitimate. The GMC authorities undertaking a comprehensive survey to assess the availability of vending space and determine the maximum number of vendors to be allowed in each notified designated vending zone will help the civic body arrive at a clearer picture. Such a survey must be completed within a small window period and cover the entire city so that registration and the issuing of vendor identity cards can quickly follow. A survey of street vendors in the city that is entrusted by the GMC to a Delhi-based NGO that remains incomplete points towards the yawning gaps in execution. Ironically, the GMC authorities initiated the survey process way back in 2020, and more than three years have passed without a concrete result, which is reflective of the street vending issue being low on the list of priorities. The survey work was to be completed within three months of the award of the contract. The last comprehensive survey of city street vendors was carried out in 2015, during which around 7,000 vendors were identified. The number of vendors has substantially increased post-COVID due to the loss of livelihoods during the pandemic. Allowing only those vendors who have received financial assistance under PM Street Vendor Atma Nirbhar Nidhi, a special micro-credit facility created by the central government to help vendors resume their business activities after their return to the cities and towns for vending post-COVID, will lead to the exclusion of many vendors who may not have availed of it from notified vending zones. The creation of basic amenities for vendors, such as toilets, water supply, and waste management, in the notified vending zones is equally important and must be done in a planned manner to prevent chaos. Planning for vending zones cannot be done in isolation and needs to be part of overall city planning so that it contributes towards improving the ease of living index for the city. Prohibiting the city areas for unauthorised street vending will be crucial, but alternative vending zones for such vendors outside the city areas need to be planned so that their livelihoods are protected. The creation of a modern vending zone with all amenities along the highway connecting growing tows and urban centres will provide alternative marketing space to such vendors who are now rushing to Guwahati city to make a living. These vending zones can be a popular marketing place for highway travellers for the purchase of fresh and green vegetables, fish, meat, and other locally produced food items, as well as locally made handloom and handicraft items. Facilitating the growth of such vending zones along highways will automatically regulate the number of street vendors in Guwahati who bring supplies from rural production hubs on a daily basis. Reclaiming the space for pedestrians through such a planned intervention will require enlarging the scope of planning for Guwahati City to incorporate factors contributing to the rise in the floating population of visitors who come to the city every day or have migrated from rural areas in search of livelihood.