Lucknow, Aug 19 - Vegetable and fruit sellers, barbers and cobblers, who set up make-shift stalls on roadsides, will soon get their own space in shopping centres in this Uttar Pradesh capital.

Aiming to provide a 'respectable place to street vendors', the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) has come up with a project of setting up shopping centres for shopkeepers not having deep pockets.

'Cobblers, washermen, vegetable and fruit vendors, barbers and owners of other types of roadside joints would get a place in shopping centres that would come up in a phased manner in parts of Lucknow,' LDA vice-chairman Mukesh Kumar Meshram told IANS Wednesday.

According to officials, the upcoming shopping centres for small shopkeepers would serve a dual purpose.

'First, it will provide a hassle-free environment to street vendors, who at times have to face problems and fight for space in order to put up their stalls. And secondly, the project will contribute to efforts aimed at removing encroachments in the city,' said Meshram.

Several localities in the city, particularly those in the Old Lucknow area, face a space crunch due to the encroachments that have come up in the form of roadside shops and make-shift joints.