Shopping at Fashion Street is going to become even more fun. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to convert the city’s favourite low cost, great bargain destination into a well organised hawker plaza.
The street, which stretches along the pavement from Cross Maidan to
Metro cinema, is popular especially among youngsters for clothes, shoes and fashion accessories.
The civic body is working on a plan that will give the 384 licensed hawkers there small kiosks, which will free up more walking space on the footpath for shoppers. It also plans to fix signages and fancy streetlights along the entire stretch.
“The idea is to keep it simple. By just regulating the space a vendor uses, a lot of space will be freed up,” said Ashish Kumar Singh, additional municipal commissioner, adding that the entire stretch will be done up with similar elements so that it looks uniform. “The area itself has a certain character, and we will maintain that in the designs.”
The BMC plans to reduce the number of hawkers there and says it will not permit new hawkers to set up stalls. “The hawkers who don’t have licences will be cleared out. And many shops that have extended their premises blocking the footpath will have to remove the extensions,” an official said, requesting anonymity. “We will be strictly regulating the hawkers.”
The BMC has yet to decide when it will start work on the makeover. Pedestrians and shoppers think it’s a good idea.
“There are some spots where the hawkers have extended their shops till the edge of the footpath, making it difficult to walk on. In the evening, many people use the footpath while walking towards the station. If the BMC can provide more walking space, it will be a great help for people like me,” said Sharmila Parmar, a pedestrian who walks from her office in Fort to Churchgate station every day.