Cairo governorate is pressing ahead with its campaign to relocate street vendors in central Cairo to the parking lot at Torgoman bus station despite stall holders' warnings that the move is unrealistic. “Nobody will go to Torgoman to buy,” Mohamed Fayez, a street vendor on Talaat Harb Street, told Al-Ahram Weekly on Sunday, the first day of the campaign. “Our business depends on footfall. People don't come to us to buy. They see the merchandise while passing and make a purchase. Our spots Downtown were close to government offices and metro stations. Thousands of employees would pass daily. No one comes to Torgoman.” More than 1,000 street vendors were ordered on Sunday to move to the parking lot. Amid a heavy security presence Downtown streets were cleared of vendors. Many of them did gather in the designated space by Torgoman bus station, though their purpose was to protest the decree ordering their removal rather than establish new trading pitches. On Monday dozens of street traders attempted to march from Torgoman to the High Court before blocking Al-Galaa Street. They are threatening to escalate their protests if the government ignores their complaints “The new location is inappropriate. The space allocated to individual stalls is tiny. There are no facilities, and we are expected to pay extortionate monthly fees,” complained long-term street vendor Fayez. The first phase of the relocation, says Cairo Governor Galal Al-Said, includes vendors operating in Talaat Harb, Qasr Al-Nile and Abdel-Khalek Tharwat Streets and Abdel Moneim Riyad Square. The second phase will see the removal of stalls from Ramsis Square, Bulaq Abul-Ela and Ahmed Helmi station. Cairo governorate announced early in July that stalls would be moved to the Torgoman's car park on a temporary basis. Stall holders were told that they would be moving to a permanent location in Abdel-Moneim Riyad Square – at a yet to be constructed shopping mall – in four months. Informal stalls are blamed for causing traffic congestion in central Cairo. The number of street vendors mushroomed following the 25 January Revolution and the disappearance of the police from the city's streets. There are an estimated 6,000 vendors in operating in Boulaq, Abdeen, Al-Moski and Al-Waily, according to Cairo governorate. Street Vendor Syndicate head Ahmed Hussein says already struggling stall holders will suffer “huge material losses” as a result of the move. Hussein claims many vendors registered with the syndicate have not been allocated places at Al-Torgoman. “I have no idea how and when licenses were issued. None of the vendors who were given places are known to the syndicate.” At Torgoman protesting vendors said the allocation system was corrupt and based on favouritism. “I have been on Talaat Harb Street for several years. My name was taken when they were registering stall holders to allocate new pitches but it has failed to appear on the lists,” said Sayed. “I registered a month ago to get a spot at Torgoman,” echoed Amm Mahfouz, a street vendor from Abdel-Moneim Ryad Square. “My name has disappeared.” Those who did receive places were not much happier. “The space is barely big enough for me to stand up in, let alone display my goods,” complained Metwalli Ragab. It was the lack of any facilities that most concerned Umm Nadia. There are no toilets, no shade and nowhere to store goods at night. “The relocation will wipe out our incomes. And we are expected to pay LE450 a month for it,” said Umm Nadia. Yassin Abdel-Bari, head of the Western Cairo municipality, appeared to concede that the four month temporary move was optimistic. Vendors will have to wait six to eight months until Abdel-Moneim Riyad Square is ready, he said. The move, says Cairo deputy governor Major General Mohamed Ayman Abdel-Tawab, is part of a wider policy to “impose the sovereignty of the law” on Egypt's streets. It will help alleviate traffic congestion, end the theft of electricity and reduce damage to public property. City centre shopkeepers are delighted with the relocation of the street vendors. They have long been seen as illegal competitors. “We have suffered from the presence of street stalls since the 2011revolution,” Shadi Mohamed, owner of a shop in Talaat Harb Street, told the Weekly. “We pay taxes. We pay for the electricity we consume, employees' salaries, for the cleaning of our premises. The stall holders have no overheads. It is unfair competition.”
