'No place to walk as vendors put up stalls'

CHENNAI: Commuters using the Tambaram railway station are encountering the hawker menace of late. Makeshift shops and kiosks have come up on the pavements in front of the station on GST Road forcing rail users to walk on the road which sees heavy traffic during rush hours.
Residents say vehicles brush past them at high speeds and that all complaints made to the Tambaram municipality to evict the hawkers have fallen on deaf ears.
"There is no place to walk on the footpath as vendors have put up stalls. The police and civic authorities should remove them otherwise there is bound to be accidents as there is a huge flow of people on this stretch and they walk on the main road," said S Muthuraman a resident of West Tambaram.
When TOI visited the spot on Friday, it found that more than 30 shops have sprang up on the stretch leading to Tambaram bus stand. A number of south-bound SETC buses operate on this stretch.
Tambaram MLA S R Raja assured action against the errant vendors and said, "Some of these shops were allotted by the municipality and have been earmarked. We will carry out a drive to evict those who have put up shops illegally."
According to Tambaram railway officials, footfalls at the station are currently around 1.5 lakh per day and adding to that are thousands of bus commuters who use the Tambaram bus terminus.