Highways Department to clear illegal roadside stalls

Highways Department to clear illegal roadside stalls

Workers dismantle roadside stalls on both sides of Asia Road in Ayutthaya province on April 19 after vendors refused to move. (File photo by Sunthon Pongpao)
Workers dismantle roadside stalls on both sides of Asia Road in Ayutthaya province on April 19 after vendors refused to move. (File photo by Sunthon Pongpao)

The Highways Department has pledged to dismantle all merchant stalls and illegal structures along its highways nationwide and will give vendors three months to move to new venues it will help to find.

"They say setting up stalls to sell goods is an honest job, but trespassing on public space is illegal. It affects pedestrians and obstructs traffic. The vendors also put themselves at risk of accidents. This problem has gone on for so long and spread to many areas," Sarawut Songsriwilai, deputy director-general of the department’s highway maintenance office, said on Wednesday. 

Mr Sarawut said it would take one to two years to clear the spaces along the highways. “It will take a long time to deal with this problem because we have limited manpower." 

The department early this year began to dismantle stalls, mostly selling roti saimai (cotton candy wrapped in paper-thin roti), on both sides of Asia Road between kilometre markers 1 and 30 in three districts of Ayutthaya.

Mr Sarawut said the work was 90% complete. Only a few vendors had asked for more time to relocate, he said, and all vending activities on Asia Road should end before the new year.

Officials are also making progress in expelling vendors selling the popular kai tom nam pla (boiled chicken in fish sauce) on a section of Phetkasem Road in Phetchaburi province. 

During the nationwide crackdown, Mr Sarawut said, the department would give vendors three months to dismantle their illegal roadside structures. It would help find new venues about three to four kilometres from the previous spots for all the evicted vendors to sell their goods as a remedial measure.  

"After the deadline, we will work with police, soldiers and administrative authorities to take legal action against the trespassers who refuse to relocate. We will tear down their stalls,” Mr Sarawut said.

Under the law, the highways boundary is extended six metres on both sides of the road, and the general public is banned from setting up stalls in those areas.


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