Manzoor-ul-Hassan
Srinagar, Jul 18: Almost six years since the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) announced the smart hawker vendor zone near Khalsa School Srinagar to relocate at least 450 street vendors, the civic body is yet to make it functional.
The designated zones for street vendors are a part of the Smart City project to decongest city streets and provide legitimate means of livelihood to hawkers.
However, the SMC has not been able to make the main vendor zone functional despite building smart carts with basic facilities including solar power panels.
The ambitious project was announced in 2018 and a tender worth Rs. 4.84 was issued in March 2020 to set up a smart vending zone near Exhibition Ground.
An official said that the initial work on the smart carts was taken up and completed within a year only. However, the facility was abandoned soon after.
He said the corporation couldn’t reach any agreement with the street vendors located at Hari Singh High Street and Jahangir Chowk, thereby delaying the implementation and wasting the state exchequer.
Another official cited some dispute over the land on which the smart stalls had been built.
President of Kashmir Traders and Manufactures Federation (KTMF), Yasin Khan expressed concern over the delay in the vendor zone project and appealed to the government to make it functional at the earliest.
“We will raise the issue with the SMC Commissioner soon. The hawker zone would further decongest the Srinagar streets. Otherwise, the initiatives under the Smart City project are appreciable,” he said.
Notably, there are more than 6,000 street vendors in Srinagar city, which were to be relocated to the smart vending zones.
Under the Smart City project, some vendors were relocated to the Batamaloo area, and the historic Mecca market as part of their ongoing urban development project.
Meanwhile, Commissioner SMC Owais Ahmad didn’t respond to repeated calls, while Commissioner Secretary Housing and Urban Development Department (H&UDD) refused to comment saying she was busy in a meeting.
