Street vendors have returned to Guwahati’s Fancy Bazar during the Durga Puja shopping season, renewing congestion concerns in the city’s busiest commercial hub weeks after the Guwahati Municipal Corporation conducted eviction drives to clear roads and improve pedestrian movement.
Fancy Bazar is drawing large crowds as festive shopping intensifies. The movement of shoppers and vehicles, combined with roadside vending on narrow and busy streets, has added pressure to the area, according to the report. The renewed presence of vendors has also raised questions about how consistently the civic body’s no-vending restrictions are being enforced.
The GMC had earlier restricted vending along MS Road and HB Road as part of measures to regulate commercial activity and address congestion. The restrictions came into effect in September, following drives intended to remove encroachments and keep important roads clear for movement.
“These sites are off limits for the street vendors, and they have occupied it illegally. The eviction drives are continuous as roads are important to be kept clear for movements,” a GMC official said. The official added that the city has limited vending zones because of a lack of space.
The civic body currently has functioning vending zones in areas including Fatasil Ambari, Kacharighat and Uzan Bazar. GMC surveys are continuing to identify additional locations that could be suitable for street vending, the official said.
For vendors, however, the festive period is a crucial opportunity to earn. Premadhar Rabha, a street vendor, said Durga Puja business was the main source of income for many traders and that they could not afford to remain away during the season. He said vendors had been operating in the area for years and that the few days of festive trade were important for their earnings.
The competing demands are particularly visible in Fancy Bazar, where a seasonal increase in shoppers coincides with limited road space and high commercial activity. Eviction drives can temporarily clear streets, but the return of vendors during peak trading periods shows the difficulty of sustaining restrictions when alternative vending locations are limited and livelihoods depend on established customer flows.
Residents have called for regular monitoring and sustained enforcement so that roads remain accessible during the shopping season. For the GMC, the immediate challenge is to manage pedestrian access and traffic movement while continuing to identify vending zones that can accommodate traders outside restricted stretches.
The civic body’s ongoing eviction drives and surveys for additional vending locations are the next stated steps as festive shopping continues in Fancy Bazar.
