#GoodNews: Eco-Friendly Kiosks Built for Vendors in Telangana

Telangana’s Sircilla district has introduced eco-friendly kiosks for street vendors, using recycled plastic. 

(Photo Courtsey: The News Minute) 

As a part of the Urban Street Vendors Project, Telangana’s Sircilla district has introduced eco-friendly kiosks for street vendors, using recycled plastic.

The first ever municipal body to implement this, the project is aimed at providing a supportive environment for street vendors to earn a livelihood.

The facility was inaugurated by TRS working president and Sircilla MLA, KT Rama Rao, on Tuesday, 25 June.

Second Life to Plastic Waste

A facility like this, not only helps develop a conducive environment for street vendors, but also utilises the plastic waste in an environment friendly manner.

Each kiosk is about 8x8 feet with 400 kg of plastic waste used to build it. Sircilla has 55 such kiosks, that have been provided free of cost to the vendors.

Head of Bamboo House India, the organization that undertook the project, said that they have been commissioned to build another 43 kiosks in Siddipet, another district in Telangana, reported The News Minute.

“This facility at Sircilla is an attempt by the Telangana government at providing permanent kiosks to vendors to transact their daily business. The vendors operating on the roadsides are often considered a nuisance and seasonal changes often make them run around the city with their pushcarts. Keeping this in mind, we have built kiosks using only plastic waste, on several footpaths in the city, providing a permanent solution to their crisis.”

Prashanth Lingam, head of Bamboo House India

Challenges of This Sustainable Model

The average cost of building a single kiosk has been estimated at roughly over Rs 1 lakh. While the durability of the plastic houses is debatable, the high prices at segregating and recycling the plastic waste are a major deterrent in adopting this model.

“It’s difficult to undertake projects at a larger scale because of the soaring prices. We are now looking at collaborating with the UNDP in India to make the project more viable for different districts in Telangana.”

Prashanth Lingam, head of Bamboo House India

(With Inputs from The News Minute)