The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) started the process of earmarking two-thirds width of pavements along roads that has to be kept free for pedestrians in the New Market area late on Saturday.
The earmarking started around 9.30pm and was supposed to continue till close to midnight.
Some of the roads on which pavements are being marked out are Lindsay Street, Humayun Place, Corporation Place and Bertram Street.
This would be the third round of such earmarking of pavements in Kolkata.
Framed by the state government, the street vending rules mention that two-thirds width of a pavement should be free for pedestrians while the rest can be taken by hawkers to set up stalls.
One of the two other places where similar exercise has been carried out is Gariahat — on stretches of pavements along Rashbehari Avenue and Gariahat Road.
The other place is the pavement at Oberoi Grand Arcade where the KMC and the police acted after the Calcutta High Court issued orders asking the civic body to keep two-thirds width of the pavement free for pedestrians.
A KMC official told The Telegraph that a line demarcating two-thirds width of the pavement has been drawn on all the pavements.
The number of hawkers on roads surrounding New Market (SS Hogg Market) has proliferated to such an extent that hawkers have also gobbled up space on roads. The pavements are almost fully occupied by their stalls.
Humayun Place and Bertram Street had scores of stalls on the road.
On Humayun Place, there are stretches with three layers of stalls — one stall on the pavement and two more stalls on the road. The other side of the road also has stalls. This leaves a narrow passage in the middle for vehicles and pedestrians.
The street vending rules says that no stall or any portion of it can be set up on a road or thoroughfare.
“We will not make any marking on the road because that will legitimise the right of hawkers to set up stalls on roads,” said the KMC official.
Owners of shops and stores inside New Market have repeatedly requested the Kolkata Municipal Corporation officials to rein in hawkers in the area.
The traders said that hawkers block their shops, inconveniencing their customers, many of whom have stopped coming to their stores because of the struggle they have to face while making their way through the legion of hawkers.
The earmarking does not guarantee that hawkers will stop sitting on the roads from Sunday. It also remains to be seen whether the stalls on the pavements shrink in
size and remains restricted within the boundary drawn for hawkers.