Raipur Municipal Corporation’s Zone 5 has selected four locations to accommodate 32 street vendors, linking the move to safer vending spaces, improved traffic movement and formal recognition of small traders. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Zone 5 Vending Zone Committee on November 14, 2026.
The committee discussed the basic facilities required at the proposed sites, including cleanliness, adequate lighting and measures to prevent anti-social activities. It also considered how vending areas could be arranged without obstructing traffic or creating additional pressure on surrounding public spaces.
Zone 5 commissioner and committee chairperson Rakesh Sharma chaired the meeting. Municipal market department chairperson Avatar Bagal attended as vice-chairperson. Ten street vendors, including five women, participated in the discussions on the proposed vending arrangements.
The process includes the survey and identification of urban street vendors, demarcation of vending zones and the distribution of vending certificates under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission. The certificates are intended to provide formal recognition to eligible vendors within the municipal vending framework.
The action is part of Raipur Municipal Corporation’s wider effort to regulate street vending while protecting vendors’ livelihoods. The civic body has previously identified 13 locations across the city for developing vending zones. Three sites near Budha Talab, Pujari Park in Tikrapara and Jabbar Nala were prioritised in an earlier phase.
RMC subsequently directed its town planning department and zonal offices to identify vending zones across all 10 municipal zones. The exercise also includes developing alternative spaces for vendors removed from areas classified as no-vending zones. This approach places the responsibility for managing roadside commerce across the corporation’s administrative zones rather than limiting the exercise to isolated relocation drives.
The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, requires urban local bodies to survey existing street vendors at least once every five years. Vendors identified through the process are to be accommodated in designated vending zones, subject to the holding capacity of those areas and the applicable street-vending plan.
For Zone 5, the immediate challenge is to translate the committee’s site selection into functioning vending areas with the facilities and capacity discussed at the meeting. The committee is taking further steps to implement the proposal, while the broader municipal exercise continues across Raipur’s remaining zones.
