2 min readMumbaiNov 5, 2025 04:04 PM IST
First published on: Nov 5, 2025 at 04:04 PM IST
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday evicted 67 unauthorised hawkers from the Colaba Causeway neighbourhood in South Mumbai. The drive against the unauthorised hawkers to decongest the road at Colaba is being undertaken for the second time in four months.
In July, the BMC had evicted 60 unauthorised hawkers who had encroached public spaces.
“The drive was initiated to free up the public space and to decongest the existing road at Colaba. The authorities had identified unauthorised vendors who had set up stalls at the causeway and on Tuesday morning these stalls were removed and actions were taken against them,” said a civic body officer.
The official also maintained that the drive will continue in the coming weeks.
“We received complaints from the traffic department that the space in the road’s carriageway has reduced due to the presence of hawkers, posing a serious threat to pedestrians as well as motorists. Since heavy vehicles like BEST buses ply on these roads, it was necessary to remove the hawkers to keep the footpaths and roads less cluttered,” said the officer.
Earlier this week, Makarand Narwekar, former corporator from Colaba, wrote to Mumbai’s Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani demanding the removal of illegal stalls from the causeway within a week.
“More than 50 per cent of the stalls at Colaba Causeway are illegal, and rampant encroachments have made the footpaths completely non-walkable and unsafe for pedestrians. In case no visible action is taken within this period, as a mark of protest, we will be compelled to set up stalls outside BMC’s A ward office to draw attention to this long-standing issue,” Narwekar stated in his letter.
In April, the Bombay High Court (HC) issued directions to the BMC to evict all the hawkers that were operating without licence at Colaba Causeway. In reply, the BMC had informed the court that there are 83 licensed hawkers in Colaba. Apart from them, 253 hawkers had approached the Supreme Court (SC) seeking protection from the BMC’s action. The officials clarified that no action is being taken on these 253 hawkers since the case is sub-judice at the court.
The Bombay HC also declined to extend the earlier stay granted on the implementation of the Street Vendors Act. (Representative Image) 
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