The mayor has announced that hawkers have to stay at least 50ft off “main crossings”, but the Calcutta Municipal Corporation appears unsure how to identify the crossings.

Wednesday was like any other day for hawkers in Calcutta as they did brisk business without caring about the new rule.

“We are a little busy with Republic Day arrangements. We will begin work to mark the 50ft distance and remove hawkers,” a civic official said.

A stretch of 50ft of a footpath from any crossing has between 10 and 20 hawker stalls. The biggest challenge before the civic body is to remove these hawkers and rehabilitate them.

“Hawkers have to keep 50ft from main crossings free. I have asked police to implement this order,” Hakim had said on Tuesday.

Civic officials seemed unsure how to identify the “main crossings” the mayor had spoken about. “There’s a list with us the police have approved. The list has 58 crossings but it isn’t exhaustive. The list can be expanded if the police want to,” the official said.

None of the hawker unions took any step on Wednesday though many pulled down tarpaulin sheets hanging over their stalls or wrapped around them.

At Gariahat, hawkers were seen removing plastic sheets from their stalls on Wednesday.

In Hatibagan, hawkers had removed the plastic sheets on Tuesday. A visit to both places on Wednesday showed there was no change when it came to leaving 50ft from crossings free.

A hawkers’ union leader at Gariahat said they would wait for civic officials to mark the 50ft length.

A union leader at Hatibagan said: “When the government has made the rule, it will be followed. Rehabilitating the hawkers who are sitting within 50ft of crossings will need some deliberations.”

The other matter is restricting hawkers to one-third width of a footpath and removing them from the road.

On Grant Street, in the New Market area, hawkers spread their ware on the road. At the Bidhan Sarani-Sikdar Bagan crossing in Hatibagan, there are hawkers on the road.

The civic body plans to either paint one-third of the footpath or use separate tiles to make the division, the civic official said.

The use of colours or separate tiles will make it easy to ascertain whether any hawker is encroaching on the space meant for pedestrians.

Shaktiman Ghosh, the leader of Hawker Sangram Committee, said: “The process has begun and it will take some time.”

Metro found about 20 stalls on the southern footpath at the crossing of SN Banerjee Road and Chowringee Road.

A hawker had even tied strings around the lamp post and hung caps on them for sale. On the western footpath, there are several bag shops one after another.