Fashion Street in Mumbai is preparing for a makeover. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to convert the city’s favourite low-cost, great-bargain shopping street into a well-organised hawker plaza. The street, which stretches along the pavement of Cross Maidan to Metro Cinema, is an extremely popular fashion destination, especially among youngsters, for clothes, shoes and fashion accessories.
The civic body plans to give the 384 licensed hawkers small kiosks, which will create 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 “We will be strictly regulating the hawkers.”
The BMC has yet to decide when it will start work on the makeover. Many shoppers and hawkers are welcoming the revamp.
