BMC’s `Ghanta Gadi’ to alert encroaching street vendors

Ghanta GadiBhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has launched a dedicated vehicle named Ghanta Gadi – bell vehicle to monitor encroachments by street vendors on footpaths and roadsides. A special squad has been formed to look after encroachment issues on footpath and roads.

As per the observation by BMC, mainly street vendors are occupying footpaths leading to obstruction for pedestrians and traffic congestion. This step will alert vendors and reduce encroachment in the streets.

This bell vehicle will be monitored by the Deputy Commissioner of Enforcement of BMC with help of some supervisors. The squad will move on in all the zones randomly without any prior notice. Street vendors will be discouraged to encroach footpaths and roads in view of immediate action from the squad. This model is already implemented in various leading cities of India including the National Capital Region, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

The vehicle was inaugurated by Member of Parliament of Bhubaneswar, Dr. Prasanna Patsani, in presence of Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, Deputy Mayor K. Shanti and senior officials of BMC.

Starting from the New Year, the BMC, Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited have jointly started beautifying the city by removing hoardings from “No Hoarding Zones’’. Recently joint action squads of BMC and BDA cleared new year hoardings and other greetings from an area of over 5,000 square feet near BDA City Centre Square and under the flyover connecting Mausima and Sishu Bhawan Square.