Mumbai: Central Railway now gets official hawkers to curb illegal ones

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The Central Railway's Mumbai division has come up with an idea to curb unauthorised hawking by permitting platform vending to licenced vendors at an additional fee.

To start with it has given permission to 180 platform vendors to sell catering items directly to passengers on platforms of stations where mail/express trains are dealt.

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These stations are CSMT, LTT, Panvel, Roha, Thane, Asangaon, Igatpuri, Neral, Karjat, Lonavala, Bhiwandi Road. The license for platform vendors has been provided to existing catering licensees of Mumbai Division at additional license fee.

It is also planned to increase these authorised platform vendors and to persuade existing catering licensees to have more authorised platform vendors. This will help in curbing unauthorised hawking. Passengers will have the advantage of having a better quality of food instantly at a platform.

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It has also decided to launch drive against unauthorised hawkers in coordination with RPF, TMC, KDMC, and MCGM to ensure 150-meter periphery of stations as hawker-free zone, Sunil Udasi, Central Railway's chief public relations officer said.

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