Pedestrians and street vendors in Vibhavadi Soi 62 have responded positively to Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA)’s move to beautify the area.

This is part of BMA’s campaign to organise street vendors across the city to return footpath space to pedestrians, facilitate traffic flow and improve the city’s landscape.

Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt said Soi Vibhavadi 62 was once an attractive area with wide traffic lanes and green spaces on either side. However, over the years, hawkers have been slowly taking over the road and footpaths, resulting in traffic jams.

The governor, who was in the area on Friday to inspect operations, said BMA has improved the road surface in the soi, built washing stations, organised hawkers into zones and provided parking spaces for the vendors so they do not have to park their cars on the street. Also, vendors are only allowed to sell their wares until noon.

“Residents say the campaign has helped make the soi cleaner, and the traffic moves faster. Pedestrians are also happy the footpaths are free,” Chadchart said.

The governor added that BMA has only reorganised the hawkers and not yet created an overhaul under the “Hawker Centre” policy he has modelled after Singapore.

A proper hawker centre would include facilities to support a large number of vendors, such as washing stations, he said, adding that the BMA is looking into launching its first hawker centre in the free space next to City Hall in Phra Nakhon district.

Also on Friday, Chadchart went to the Lotus’s shopping mall in Soi Song Prapha to participate in another BMA activity called “Food Bank & Don’t Mix Food Waste”. Under this campaign, Lotus’s donates unsold food that is still edible to BMA road sweepers, while the BMA will turn the remaining food waste into compost.

“Currently, food waste is responsible for 45% of the city’s total waste that requires to be properly disposed of,” Chadchart said. “BMA is designing a better logistics system to transport waste from homes as soon as possible to reduce odours, but households should also help by separating their waste properly.”