The Aam Bagan grounds in Sakchi is the new address for its footpath vendors, after the Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) on Wednesday imposed a ban on such trade in an attempt to check the threat of the transmission of Covid-19.

As many as around 200 footpath vendors, who have been selling various products at the Sakchi market for several decades, were shifted to the sprawling am Bagan grounds.

"Footpath vending can pose a threat as they attract huge customers,” said Ravi Bharti, an official of JNAC.

“The market witnessed a huge rush of people after the lockdown restrictions were relaxed. People come to buy daily-use products from the footpath vendors and they fail to follow social distancing norms,” he said.

Around 30-odd vendors turned up at the new venue on Wednesday.

Civic body authorities said that it was a temporary measure.

JNAC officials said the 'Mangla haat', a weekly market of footpath vendors at Sakchi set up on Tuesdays, will also be suspended.

Meanwhile, permanent shopkeepers heaved a sigh of relief, as the shifting of these vendors from Sakchi, a commercial centre, is a long-standing issue.

"The footpath vendors used to create problems for us,” said Mahesh Agarwal, a garment store owner in Sakchi.

“We were losing customers because of them. On several occasions in the past we had approached the district administration to shift them to some other place,” he said.

JNAC authorities also warned of taking legal action if footpath vendors were found transacting business within the Sakchi market.