BMC QR-code drive uncovers 3,167 ‘ghost’ hawker licences

3 min readMumbaiJul 27, 2026 07:00 AM IST The civic body is now considering a policy to transfer their vending licences to their eligible kin, even as it moves to create a verified database of nearly one lakh authorised hawkers and intensify action against illegal vending across Mumbai. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee/Representational) A fresh verification drive undertaken by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as part of its long-pending exercise to issue QR code-enabled identity cards to authorised hawkers has found that 3,167 vendors identified as legal in the city’s 2014 survey have died. The civic body is now considering a policy to transfer their vending licences to their eligible kin, even as it moves to create a verified database of nearly one lakh authorised hawkers