Town Planning Schemes and Street Vendors – Case-study of Ghodasar

It was observed that small marketplace-level interventions face many hurdles because town planning schemes do not provide for the development and growth of open or informal marketplaces. To explore the possibility of accommodating marketplaces in town planning schemes, the newly developing area of the Ghodasar TPS was taken up for study. The study was carried out by Shweta Tripathy, a trainee from TISS with SEWA, and guided by Rushank Mehta. It found that despite the availability of open plots and the presence of street vendors in the vicinity, the need for such open markets was not recognised in the planning process. Hence, no provision was kept for open markets, leaving street vendors to occupy the streets illegally and become a hurdle for the city. The study indicated a strong need for the incorporation of open marketplaces in the planning stages of TPS.