Hawkers find new market at JP Road Metro site

“It is only because of the Metro construction that we are able to put our stalls here,otherwise this road used to be out of bounds for us,” said Kishan Mishra,a vendor selling cellphone accessories. He has been putting his stall since a year after a section of the road was closed to vehicles for the construction work.

“Our safety is not an issue because the construction work takes place only at night,” he added.

The vendors say the road is convenient for them to put up their wares for sale because it is right next to the station and closed to vehicular traffic. While some have relocated their stalls to JP Road from nearby areas,about 80 per cent of the vendors on the road are new.

“It’s a big problem. There hasn’t been an accident yet,but one can happen,” said the site supervisor on the JP Road stretch. “This problem is majorly at the construction site on JP Road.”

The supervisor said he has informed the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and officials have come down several times to tackle the issue,but the stalls spring back.

Dilip Kawathkar,spokesperson for the MMRDA,said it is the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) responsibility to evict unauthorised vendors and the MMRDA has informed the civic body.

“The BMC officials come and collect penalties from us every week,but we continue our stalls here,” said a fruitseller. “We will leave once the Metro starts running.”

Deputy Municipal Commissioner C B Rokade said the BMC will look into the issue and take action.

The construction of the first Metro line,the 11.4-km long Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor,started in 2008 and the first trial run is expected to take place by this December on the Versova-Andheri stretch.