Bhubaneswar: In a bid to clear road blockade caused by unauthorised street vendors near Bhubaneswar railway station area, a joint squad of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) along with Commissionerate Police Wednesday initiated an eviction drive.
The squad, during the drive, demolished many shops including fruit, eatery and garment shops.
The BMC officers said that hordes of illegal street vendors lining the roads near the station had posed a serious traffic issue to pedestrians besides spoiling the looks of the city.
As the railway station area is always full of people, the vendors not only cause a nuisance to commuters, the resultant traffic chaos also lea to accidents, an official said.
At cross junctions and traffic signals, commuters face issues as they cannot park their vehicles owing to lack of space. This leads to piling up of vehicles on the main road.
The officials said though the roadside vendors were asked to clear the place many a times, they had refused to budge.
Meanwhile, the vendors expressed unhappiness over the administrative action.
“We are poor people who have nowhere else to go. Evicting us is like snatching away our livelihood,” said a vegetable vendor here.
PNN