Bhubaneswar, March 9: The municipal corporation has decided to commission a survey to streamline vending activities in the city. The survey would also provide a roadmap for rehabilitation and relocation of vendors.

The corporation has set the ball rolling and has sought proposals from different firms to conduct the survey using all available data and field studies.

The data collection would be done through web-enabled MIS (management information system) application and linked to GPS (global positioning system) for tracking locations. To this will be added real-time photographs of vendors for better biometric assessment.

Srimanta Mishra, deputy commissioner of the corporation, said that the main aim was to collect data regarding vendors for regulating their activities and also to relocate and rehabilitate in keeping with the Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.

"This survey intends to collect data about vendors and provide them proper atmosphere to carry out their business while keeping the city clean at the same time," said Mishra.

Because of ongoing development work in the city, a large number of street vendors have been evicted and their businesses have been affected permanently in past few years.

The government has taken action against them and went to the extent of declaring their business as illegal.

Besides, these vendors had been encroaching upon government land and also hindered the beautification of the city.

However, the new law provides protection to vendors and allows the civic body to make alternative arrangements for them whenever they are removed from their site of business.

"The survey will allow us to keep track of street vendors as there will be data of individuals and photographs of their shops, which can be tracked using the GPS. So those who were earlier forcibly encroaching on government land to set up shops illegally and selling space would be brought under control. The real beneficiaries would get the benefits," said an official.

Sources said that the agency that would undertake the work would identify street vendors through detailed survey that includes study of existing data with the corporation and designing web-enabled application for the study.

In the vendor identification process, all the stationary, peripatetic and mobile vendors would be identified by the use of web-based technology. Besides, the type of vending zone, time and area of vending would be identified along with the vendors. After the data is processed, the final list would be made public.

Once the identification process is over, the agency would prepare a city street-vending plan by using all the data by collaborating existing vending zones with the proposed ones.

Besides, a GIS-based map would be prepared at two levels - city level mapping and ward level mapping with different layers using different components of vending zones. While the city level mapping takes care of the wider aspects, the ward level mapping will be at area centric.

"There would be facilities for relocating existing vendors and vending zones. Those who had been earlier removed from their business place would also be brought under this plan," said Sk.Nizamuddin, a councillor.

The councillors said that this plan would help in rehabilitating the poor, who mostly depend on street vending in the city for their livelihood.

Besides the vendors had been at loggerheads with the administration in the past over eviction programmes due to development activities, which will not happen.

Last year, a group of vendors had tried to set afire the corporation office to protest against an eviction drive at Unit- IV area.

"We are waiting for the new act and will cooperate with the corporation's survey," said Anant Sahu, a street vendor.