Hawkers’ paradise: Pune roads overrun with age-old problem

To the partial relief to the residents, the hawkers on the KB Joshi Road, which connects FC Road with Pune-Mumbai Highway through Wakdewadi subway, were removed in December last year and haven’t returned.

“The road traffic in the area has increased manifold in the last five to six years. In such a situation, due to the encroachment of the footpath, residents have to take the risk of walking on the very busy roads. In the last six weeks, three senior citizen were injured after being hit by vehicles,” says Rahul Gautam, who stays in the area.

NIBM and Salukhe Vihar
Ask any resident of Salukhe Vihar Road or NIBM about the biggest cause of the perennial traffic jams in the area, the majority would blame it on the hawkers. Every evening, Salukhe Vihar Road transforms into a veritable vegetable market with hawkers teeming all over the road with their fares. Needless to say, traffic on the road goes for a toss although massive road-widening work has happened there.

“It is a nightmare to walk on this road towards evening with hawkers occupying half the road. The vehicular movement also is not at all pedestrian-friendly,” says Tanwar Sheikh, a resident whose house is along the same road. Another resident points out that there are several encroachment drives and every time a handcart is seized by the anti-encroachment department, it is released after paying up some amount and the vendors are back on the roads. “They should be given a permanent space in the area rather than have them encroaching the roads and footpaths in the area,” says Neelima Pawar, adding that they are ready to vacate if they are provided an alternate location.

“Our handcarts are often confiscated. We have had several meetings with local corporators but they are not able to give us dedicated space where we can sell our goods. If that happens, we will not wait on the roads,” says a hawker on Salunkhe Vihar road. He says that once the cart is confiscated, they have to pay around Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 to get it back from the PMC officials. Once they get their handcart back, they are on the roads again, he says.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was visiting NIBM early last year, the hawkers who had encroached on the NIBM road footpath were vacated in a day. Now, they are back. Local residents have an ambivalent attitude towards them. Sawant Shide, a local resident, says although they get vegetables near their home, the hawkers do cause inconvenience to the pedestrians. Nanda Lonkar, the local corporator, says she is well aware of the hawkers menace and is looking at addressing the issue by having a hawkers’ zone so that all the vegetables and fruit vendors can be stationed in that area. “We have been carrying out several drives to clear them out, but a permanent solution needs to be found. Once we get the required land, we would shift them all out,” says Lonkar.

Sinhagad Road, Satara Road, Karve Road
The PMC developed the Sinhagad Road under JNNURM. Apart from widening of road, it has wide footpaths and cycle tracks but they are mostly occupied by illegal vegetable markets near Rajaram bridge, Hingne Khurd, Anandnagar.

In Manikbaug area, a large number of eating joints in the evening has made the footpaths and cycle tracks look like a chowpaty. This goes on till the boundary of PMC at Dhayari. The worst part is that the footpaths and cycle tracks are encroached by hawkers with mobile carts and vans. The customers add to the public convenience by parking vehicles alongside road.

On Karve Road and Paud Road, hawkers make it difficult for pedestrians to use footpaths in the evening. Vegetable vendors, eating joints and stalls of clothes make people suffer.

In Warje, the area around the national highway witness the maximum problems of hawkers.

On Satara Road, the hawkers mostly occupy the footpaths around junctions. All junctions from Swargate till Katraj get crowded as the day proceeds.

Kondhwa and Wanorie
At Kondhwa, the encroachment by hawkers on the streets is not just a traffic menace but a health hazard as well. The problem is most acute on weekends, especially Sundays, when the entire stretch is so overcrowded that even walking becomes difficult while getting vehicles into the area is out of the question.
Javed Khan, a local resident, says the problem is so acute that people have stopped moving out of home on Sundays in areas close to the encroachment on roads. “The worst affected areas are Mithanagar main road, the vegetable market and masjid areas at Kausarbaug, Nawajiz Chowk and upper Kondhwa areas. Here, the problem is just not about traffic but garbage as well since all these hawkers and stall owners mess up the area and it stinks. Also, real estate suffers as people don’t want to buy houses here then,” he says. In fact, Porus Hansotia, who used to live in a lane behind Satyanand Hospital, says he decided to move out of the area because of the traffic and mess, among other reasons. “Every evening, a fish market comes up on the streets, near Konark Pooram society, which is on the main Kondhwa road. The stench is so horrible. On Sundays, when a weekly market comes up, even walking is difficult. In fact, we had stopped going out on Sundays because navigating the car was a nightmare,” he says.

Camp
Once the commercial haunt of Pune shopkeepers of Camp are increasingly getting vocal about the menace of hawkers on their footpaths. Shopkeepers say that the number of hawkers have increased from 20 to 100 now. Sufiyan Shaikh a shop owner, said, “All the merchants on MG road do have problem with the hawkers. They are capturing the market and affecting our business. They have also encroached on the footpaths.” Shopkeepers shared they have to be extra vigilant to attract customers with some keeping an extra worker to just ensure customers walks in the shops.