Beautify, but practicality should be top of mind, too

The stall inaugurated on Wednesday

The Colaba Causeway is part of the wider beautification initiative envisaged for the area. On Wednesday, a new well-designed hawking stall was given to a licensed hawker, who has been selling readymade garments on the causeway for 28 years.

A report in this paper showed a stall which had an awning as a rain shield and enough space inside for goods. It looked neat, compact and should certainly improve the overall aesthetic of the shopping strip, retail paradise for tourists and locals alike.

Leaders claimed that it was a pilot project and funds are in for at least 187 more stalls if this is found suitable. This should certainly open a new chapter for the area, though on the surface, it may not seem so significant, it is hugely important for Colaba. The first is that these stalls are given to licensed hawkers, so it will be easy to weed out the unlicensed hawkers.

These stalls should, hopefully, free up space on the pavements to help people walk in relative safety. It should also go some way in relief to shop owners who have for very many years been in a bitter tussle with hawkers. The current stalls, many of them, block shop front visibility. They expand width wise or in height, which is detrimental to the shops behind as their display is affected hugely.

This means a loss of customers for shops and there have been running battles between the two as doing business on this stretch has simply become a case of survival of the fittest. This paper itself has reported on several skirmishes, many of them, escalating dangerously, as complaints have been filed.

These new stalls may help defuse that to some extent though we do need more attention to attest Colaba Causeway's problems, yet it may be a small step in the right direction.