SMC plans markets for food 'laaris'

Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has decided to develop special plazas for food item hawkers called 'Informal Market'.

The civic body will develop separate spaces for food laaris in all seven zones of the city in near future. The bazaars will have all facilities of an ultra-modern food joint; however, laaris will have to pay charges for doing business.

To remove encroachments on city roads by food laaris, in order to facilitate vehicular traffic, the SMC has mooted the idea of special food space. This market will have ample space for accommodating a large number of food laaris. The civic body has already obtained nod from civic rulers and is now in final stages of preparing a blueprint for executing the plan. However, the space for these markets in each zone is yet to be finalised.

These 'Informal Markets' will have all facilities of advanced food courts, but with a difference - there will no hotels or café, only laaris. Laaris desiring to do business will have to pay a fixed rent for the space allotted to them.

Civic authorities are planning to hire the services of an agency to allocate space and collect fees from laari owners. As only a limited number of laaris can be accommodated, SMC is planning a different approach for providing space at the market.

Municipal commissioner S Aparna said that the civic body has decided to execute the plan in a phased manner. After work on one location in a zone is completed, work on another location will be initiated by the authorities. This is because there are more than 60,000 laaris doing business in the city.

"Survey of all laaris is impossible as they are movable and there is a chance of duplication. In our plan, we have decided to take smaller areas first because it will give better results and later bigger areas will be taken into hand. With this project, SMC will be able to make Surat a laari-free city, allowing more space for pedestrians and vehicles on the roads," she added.