Multiple teams from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) surveyed the Grand Arcade to identify and record the particulars of hawkers there on Tuesday.

Such surveys are being conducted across five locations in Calcutta — Gariahat, New Market area, Hatibagan, Behala and The Oberoi Grand.

Although The Oberoi Grand and the New Market area are contiguous, the KMC has created separate teams for the two places.

"Tuesday was the first time the survey was done at the Grand Arcade. We will also survey the Esplanade area," said a member of the study team.

A senior KMC official said particulars of 1,364 hawkers had been recorded till Tuesday. The survey had a token start at Gariahat on Friday. It started in four other locations and also continued in Garihat from Monday.

"We are hoping to complete the enumeration in the next twelve days," said Debashis Kumar, a mayoral council member of KMC.

Kumar is also one of the members of the five-member committee set up by chief minister Mamata Banerjee to regulate hawkers in the city.

Mayor Firhad Hakim, deputy mayor Atin Ghosh, Kumar, state ministers Aroop Biswas and Moloy Ghatak are its other members.

In a meeting at Nabanna last week, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that The Oberoi Grand was a high-security zone where many “important people” come and hawkers cannot insist on putting up stalls around the hotel.

Mamata said that if required, hawkers who now occupy that stretch will have to move elsewhere. The pavement in front of The Oberoi Grand has become “congested”, she said.

The ongoing survey was launched after the chief minister lashed out at politicians, police and officials for allowing the encroachment of footpaths and roads for money.

KMC sources said that hawkers found in their stalls during the survey will be identified as owners of the stalls and the certificate of vending will be issued in their names.

The survey teams are clicking pictures of the hawkers, recording their Aadhaar numbers, the address of the building in front of which a stall is located and its GIS-based location.

The hawkers are also being asked if they had applied for hawker licences in 2015 and the number of that application is also being recorded.

The KMC had in 2015 sought applications from hawkers and promised to give them licences. The move did not go ahead as a central Act - Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 was soon notified and states had to follow it.

The 2014 Act said that hawkers would be given certificates of vending to protect their livelihoods.

Calcutta's town vending committee, formed under provisions of the 2014 Act, surveyed to identify the hawkers at Gariahat, New Market area and Hatibagan in 2022.