Navi Mumbai | September 8, 2026
Navi Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Kailas Shinde has ordered a citywide drive to remove unauthorised stalls and pan shops from within 50 metres of schools and colleges, while directing civic officials to clear major footpaths before Ganeshotsav.
The instructions were issued during a review meeting on civic services, encroachments, sanitation, footpaths, alleged drug sales and preparations for the festival. Shinde told officials that footpaths must remain available for pedestrians and that pan shops or similar businesses should not operate around educational institutions.
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation is preparing special teams at the ward-office level to carry out the action. The drive will give priority to footpaths near schools, hospitals, railway stations and markets. Officials have also been asked to prepare action plans for each ward, set priorities and maintain continuity in enforcement rather than conduct only temporary clearance operations.
The civic body said authorised hawkers would be shifted to alternative locations, while action would be taken against unauthorised hawkers occupying pedestrian space. The municipal instructions follow concerns that encroachments are forcing pedestrians to walk on roads, increasing the risk of accidents. Officials are also expected to focus on railway station areas, where passenger-related complaints have been reported, including around Nerul station.
According to the report, the commissioner has asked the police to take the lead, with municipal assistance, in regular action against the sale and use of drugs in and around railway stations. Similar monitoring has been directed around schools and colleges. The civic administration has not provided details in the report about the number of enforcement teams, the alternative hawking sites or the total number of structures targeted.
The campaign will also cover food carts operating after evening hours. The municipal administration has received complaints that several unauthorised food carts remain on roads until midnight. Separate teams are being planned for night-time enforcement, and officials have been instructed to examine action against the sale of food on roads after 11 p.m. Daily action against unauthorised hawkers has also been ordered.
Sanjay Shinde, deputy commissioner in the encroachment department, said instructions had been issued to all eight ward offices in accordance with the commissioner’s directions. He said the removal of pan shops had been under way for the previous week and that 90 per cent had already been removed. The remaining shops would be removed soon, he said, adding that a separate team would conduct regular enforcement.
The municipal campaign is scheduled to continue ahead of Ganeshotsav, when pedestrian and vehicle movement across Navi Mumbai is expected to rise. The next operational steps are the preparation of ward-level plans, deployment of special teams and continued action around footpaths, educational institutions and railway station areas.
