Traders, shoppers for New Market makeover

KOLKATA: In a market where glitzy malls are going all out to lure customers, New Market has to go for a complete makeover if it has to survive, feel shopkeepers and visitors.
Mind you, the market still draws hordes of shoppers. For them, the variety and the competitive pricing are the biggest draws only they rue the disappointing ambience of the heritage market.
Rhea and Lakshmi Ghosh, a mother-daughter duo busy shopping at New Market, said, "Even basic amenities like a proper washroom or drinking water are missing. It's a huge place and maps could help in getting more shoppers to this place. Prices are cheap and that's the only benefit of coming here. Earlier, shopping meant New Market but now there are more options at malls. New Market needs to change with time," said Rhea.
Shopkeeper Pinku Dutta couldn't agree more. "Committed customers keep coming back, but earlier we had flying customers as well. There has been a drastic dip in that number. We need to change our presentation to get more people. The littered walking areas, the ill-maintained structure and the smell from the fish market annoy customers and they don't come back."
Kolkata Municipal Corporation, owner of the market, tried in vain to give a modern look to the heritage market a year ago. The KMC market department mooted a proposal for redevelopment of the market and issued an expression of interest. However, a section of shop-owners resisted the move on rehabilitation grounds. The protesters demanded that they be given an alternative site for rehabilitation first and, only then, would they leave the space for modernisation of the market.
According to plans, the KMC would rope in a private player for redevelopment of the market on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. A noted architect had designed a mezzanine floor to create more space in the market. New Market ( both old and new) now has around 850 stalls. However, the plans could not materialise as the civic body failed to find suitable land for rehabilitation of the shop-owners. Joint municipal commissioner (development) Sahidul Islam is still hopeful. "We have been trying to convince the traders for the past year. Let us see whether we can find suitable land for their rehabilitation," Islam said.
Sources in the KMC market department said once the redevelopment proposal was passed, the civic body would air-condition the entire market. "Even if redevelopment plans do not materialize, we have decided to repair the entire market, especially the vegetable and fish wings," a senior official of the KMC market department said. These two wings were declared insecure a couple of years ago.
However, shop-owner Sunil Aswani is a firm believer that status quo should remain, else the shoppers will not feel comfortable with the changes. But this idea doesn't have many takers. R K Manglani, owner of a reputed shop of New Market, said: "We definitely need to repair and maintain the market. We have made numerous petitions to KMC for maintaining this place. There is no point denying that people are moving to malls because they no longer find it interesting."
The exit and the entrance to the market are perpetually blocked by hawkers and shoppers have to jostle their way in.