Bhubaneswar: Vendors, who had encroached on streets and roadside drains in various parts of the city, have started removing their makeshift business set-ups themselves.

The situation has arisen a day after the Bhubaneswar Development Authority and the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation conducted back-to-back eviction drives along the roads and drains in the city on Thursday.

"We issued notices to several vendors, who had encroached upon streets and drains in various parts of the city. They were asked to remove their makeshift set-ups by themselves or face action. Those, who did not pay heed to our advice, faced action on Thursday," said an official of the enforcement team.

On Thursday, the squad conducted two eviction drives at Nayapalli and Patia. In the process, the team had removed 26 temporary shops and 128 bamboo-made kiosks at Nayapalli and one temporary fencing and boundary wall made over a drain at Patia.

"The requisition was made by respective zonal commissioners, following which we went to the spot for conducting the eviction drives. As we were well aware of the opposition from the vendors, we took adequate police force at Nayapalli, while the eviction drive went smoothly at Patia," said development authority's liaison officer S.S. Mohanty.

The vendors, who had erected their shops between Delta Square and Stewart School Square, removed the makeshift set-ups. "We don't want them to demolish our set-ups. We will go elsewhere and do our business," said a fruit seller on the stretch.

Similar approach was taken by vendors at Siripur, Khandagiri, Jagamara and few other places, where the vendors voluntarily removed their makeshift set-ups.

"There is no need to encroach upon roads and drains if the administration provides us place to do business," said another vendor at Siripur.

The Telegraph had in the past reported about the authorities' inability to evict the squatters along the streets, who posed a threat to commuters.

More so, the drains were also getting choked as the civic authorities could not clean them properly because of the squatters.

"The state government has formed the central eviction monitoring committee as well as a joint squad to conduct rigorous enforcement drives. We have been evicting the vendors regularly, but they are reappearing again and again. This time, we decided to be strict. We will also identify the vendors, who are eligible for rehabilitation and provide them spaces in our vending zones," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.