1,000 of the 1,183 street vendors registered with the Municipality of Port Louis are to be relocated to the new Victoria Urban Terminal. The allocated space is being finalised and they will be able to start their activities there as from next April.
The New commerce will be a bus station, which will house in its space large commercial spaces of all kinds, offices, car parks, a taxi stand and green spaces but especially areas of various businesses intended for former street vendors.
The drawing of lots, which began at the end of October, was endorsed on Monday, December 6 by the Lord Mayor of Port Louis, Mahfooz Moussa Cadersaib. The 1000 people drawn will no longer be ‘street vendors’ as such or ‘on the sly vendors’. They will change their status to ‘merchant’. They are, in short, those merchants who used to operate in the Jardin de la Compagnie, Ruisseau du Pouce, Decaën, Monneron and at the back of the LIC building. They will each pay an annual trade fee, a monthly rent and can operate legally.
1000 stalls, light structures on a space of 1m90 by 1m35 each, will be mounted. They will be 800 who will be assigned to trade in various items commonly called Fancy Goods, 103 for fresh food, 52 for pre-cooked food and 45 for cooked food. A letter will be sent to those selected to present the administrative documents required to finalise their licences.
The fate of the 183 remaining traders was also at the heart of the announcements, “They will be accommodated at the future Immigration Urban Terminal, once its construction is completed“, said the Lord Mayor. For the time being, and in these periods where crowd buying characterises the Christmas season and end of the year celebrations, they will operate as street vendors and on the sly vendors!
