The mayoral council of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) on Wednesday gave its nod to set up metal panels at the back of hawkers’ stalls in Gariahat, where now hang torn and ugly bedsheets.
CMC officials said the approval has paved the way for the civic body to float an e-tender to select agencies that will build the panels, which, apart from protecting the stalls and the merchandise from dust and the elements, will provide space to put up advertisements.
Metro has reported several times that torn and worn-out bedsheets and plastic sheets hang at the rear of hawkers’ stalls along pavements across the city.
They not only make the stretches look ugly, but are fire hazards as well.
Debashis Kumar, mayoral council member who looks after hawker issues, said the civic body wants the construction of panels to be completed within two months from the date the contract to build them are awarded.
The metal panels will be set up in stalls along Rashbehari Avenue (between Deshapriya Park and Ballygunge station) and along Gariahat Road (till the Golpark crossing in the south and Pantaloons in the north).
CMC sources said there are about 1,400 hawkers on these stretches but there may not be as many metal panels. A panel can cover two or more adjoining stalls, the sources said.
“We will float a tender to select the agencies that will be willing to advertise. The agencies will build the panels themselves,” Kumar said.
“The objective is to protect the wares in the stalls and also make the stretch look better. Some of the panels will display commercial advertisements and others will have socially relevant messages and useful information written on them,” Kumar said.
The CMC has allowed hawkers to build overhead tin sheds replacing plastic sheets that used to hang over the stalls.
Several stretches of pavements in Gariahat look much cleaner with tin sheds replacing plastic sheets, said a Ballygunge resident. But hawkers are still hanging plastic sheets or cloth pieces/bedsheets at the rear of the stalls, facing roads.
Rules framed by the state government prevent hawkers from using plastic sheets, occupying more than one-third of the width of apavement, setting up stalls facing a road and encroaching on roads.
The rules are violated with impunity across the city.