Roadside vendors on Sittwe’s Shu Khin Thar Street to be relocated

By Admin 22 Mar 2023

DMG Newsroom
22 March 2023, Sittwe

The Sittwe Township municipality is planning to relocate vendors along Shu Khin Thar Street in the Arakan State capital.

The municipality has earmarked an alternative strip of land approximately 500 feet long at the back of the district immigration office in Pyi Taw Thar Ward for the vendors to be moved to. Vendors say they don’t know yet when they will have to move to the new location.

Ko Khant Khun Thar, who sells salad on Shu Khin Thar Street, said: “We vendors can’t sell when VIPs visit, and we also have to leave immediately when motorcades come. So, it is good for all of us to be granted a place for us to sell.”

Some residents are against the idea, however, contending that putting all the vendors along the street into a single place will result in overcrowding and will cause traffic congestion.

One Sittwe resident called for designating similar places along Strand Road. 

“Not all the people may want to crowd into a single place. They might want to chill out in different parts,” he said.

Shu Khin Thar Street is dotted with dozens of roadside vendors selling various kinds of food, from salads and cold beverages to rice and curry and BBQ. The vendors typically open their stalls in the evenings from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, some residents complain about garbage dumped by vendors and litter from passersby and patrons, which they say make the town dirty.

“The garbage problem will worsen when there are more vendors. There is a need to effectively handle that problem, and authorities must regulate the vendors,” said Sittwe resident U Aung Kyi Moe.

DMG’s phone calls to Arakan State Administration Council spokesman U Hla Thein and executive director Daw Khin Khin Soe of the township municipality, seeking comment on the relocation of street vendors along Shu Khin Thar Street, went unanswered.

There are currently more than 20 street vendors who regularly sell along Shu Khin Thar Street in the Arakan State capital.