Guwahati: The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) on Tuesday said it has asked National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) to carry out a survey of vending zones in the city soon.

The All Guwahati Vendors Association recently submitted a list of 768 vendors in the city from 11 different zones to the government, after discussion with the GMC and NULM with an aim to create permanent vending zones in the city.

"Permanent vending zones are a long-standing demand of our organisation. We have had a series of meetings with GMC officials on the subject. But when the work started, the GMC commissioner got transferred. We have had to start the process from the beginning several times. Ultimately our demand did not get fulfilled," association president Naren Malakar said.

GMC mayor Mrigen Sarania told The Telegraph that in the 2014-15 fiscal, GMC established three vending zones at Six Mile, Panbazar and one in front of Gauhati Medical College and Hospital but all three projects failed.

"There are a lot of problems in setting up a vending zone. It creates traffic snarls and poses security problems for people in the vicinity. Maintaining hygiene is another major challenge," Sarania said. He said after a clash with street vendors in Birubari during an eviction drive in June last year, creating an exclusive vending zone in the city is even more difficult.

"According to guidelines, there is a need for vending zones to settle around 25,000 vendors in the city. We proposed 58 places in the city, of which the GMC assured to declare 11 as vending zones but traffic officials cancelled five of those and ultimately we did not get a single one," Malakar said.