Mumbai: Hawk-and-scoot is new game in town

Citizens taking the SV Road outside Borivli station on the west side have complained about the struggle to negotiate the road due to the increasing hawker menace The problem has compounded further with the advent of mobile hawkers who move freely on the road This is apart from the two rows of hawkersmdashone taking over the footpath and the other sprawled on the road just outside the pavement railing The easy mobility of hangers makes it easy for hawkers to escape in case of BMC or police raids and then return just as swiftly tooAlso read Need to put an end to illegal hawkers issueClothes displayed on makeshift hangers PicNimesh DaveThe majority of these hawkers with hangers hail from Mira Road and Nalasopara They do not have fixed spots for business unlike the ones who set up makeshift stalls and have fixed spots demarcated among themselves When Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials or police personnel raid these places to deal with the menace the inner two rows of hawkers take time to bundle up their belongings However these mobile hawkers easily clear out with their customised hangers They are also the first ones to returnMore than half of the road is taken over by two types of hawkers ones with their makeshift stalls outside the footpath and ones with hangers outside Borivli station PicAnurag AhireThese three lines of hawkers have turned the around 2km stretch of the SV Road between Gora Gandhi Hotel and Moksh Plaza a traffic nightmare And all of this is happening right under the noses of the BMC and police as both the Borivli police station and BMCrsquos R Central ward office are on the same roadlsquoTraffic nightmarersquoNalin Trivedi a resident of LT Road in Borivli West who walks to Borivli station daily said ldquoPedestrians and those waiting for buses are obstructed by hawkers selling their wares directly on the pavement and even on the road outside Borivli station west This narrows the motorable road causing traffic jams This in turn leads to constant honking by motorists causing noise pollution I walk the 12 km distance from my home to the station every day which should generally take 1012 minutes But it takes around 20 minutes to half an hour due to the crowd and traffic snarlsrdquoHangers with hawkersrsquo wares take up the majority of the footpath outside Borivli station on the west side PicsNimesh DaveldquoThis is a 90 feet road and a major chunk of it is occupied by hawkers on both sides of the road The BMC has failed to address the issue inconveniencing pedestrians Given that hawkers are operating right under the noses of BMC and police we wonrsquot be surprised if there is a nexusrdquo said Gopal Jhaveri founder of Mumbai March a citizens movementM Ramanujan a resident of LIC Colony said ldquoBorivli is plagued by three main issues illegal hawking careless pedestrian movement and vehicle parking Among these the hawker menace has turned into a major burden They take over half of the road in the evening making it challenging for both motorists and pedestrians The problem gets worse as hundreds of people exit the platform on to this stretch each time a train arrives Despite crackdowns hawkers return to the same locationrdquoA hanger of clothes which is easy to move takes up part of the roadldquoMany of the commutersrsquo hassles are the result of hawkers encroaching on the roads outside the station If these hawkers are evicted there would be adequate room for the public to walkrdquo said Harish Pandey secretary New link Road Residents AssociationAngry tweetsCitizens have also taken to social media especially Twitter to air their grievances about this issueRajiv Sharma tweeted ldquoSV Road outside Borivali Stn West is packed with hawkers There is hardly any space for pedestrians and vehicles to pass right from the main station to Moksh Plaza This is resulting in chaos Pl remove these hawkers immediately sicrdquoA BMC van blue parked on SV near Anupam Store outside Borivli station around 10 am on Wednesday The van is generally stationed there from 930 am to 2 pm every day During this time the road remains clear of hawkersldquoThis is an everyday routine scene hawkers have but not only occupied footpaths also take 4 to 6 feet extension on SV Road LT Road near Borivli west station but sir is also you trying to make Mumbai city for hawkers sicrdquo Divyesh Shah tweeted Giriraj Soni another Twitter user tagged the official handle of BMCrsquos R Central ward and posted ldquoTherersquos no place to walk on SV Road Borivali West near the railway station due to hawkers Can we expect any solutionsrdquoThe same spot is filled with hawkers who set up their makeshift stalls on the road around 230 pm after the van left the spotBMC SpeakAs per sources in BMC the civic body is in the process of reconstituting the committee for finalising hawking zones and allotment of hawkersrsquo pitches ldquoAs per the courtrsquos direction there is a need for a committee However the committee will have to be reconstituted to start the process again We had identified spots as hawking zones in all 24 administrative wards However we cannot implement the policy using the old spots identified in 2019rdquo said a senior BMC official He added ldquoMeanwhile we have been carrying out eviction drives at ward level from time to timerdquo