In the Kalasipalya market, nearly 2,000 vegetable traders sell every kind of produce in the midst of loitering cows and roads filled with muck. Despite wet waste being collected in the morning, more piles up again by afternoon. Many of the traders who do not have shops sell their produce on the road.
On Thursday, recognising the major overhaul this prime wholesale market in the centre of the old city needs, Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George and BBMP officials inaugurated a ₹10 crore project for rejuvenation of the market.
Chief Engineer Projects K.T. Nagaraj said that the three blocks of the market had been built in 1978 and allotted to shopkeepers in 1982-83 after which it was handed over to the APMC for maintenance. “For a long time, there has been no maintenance. In one block, the flooring has nearly disappeared. There is no electrification and a compound wall has collapsed," said Mr. Nagaraj.
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He added that the rejuvenation project, being implemented under the Nagarothana scheme, would be completed within eight months. The work includes replacement of old storm water pipes, construction of a compound wall and a gate, toilets in all the blocks, desilting of a storm water drain in the market, construction of a water sump tank of 30,000-litre capacity and an RO plant.
Mayor G. Padmavathi has asked Solid Waste Management department to set up a biomethanisation plant on the premises to handle wet waste locally. There is one block of toilets on the premises, sorely insufficient for the floating population of nearly 5,000 that visits the market. Annaiah, a trader who has been running a shop since 1983, said the toilets are rarely clean. "When it rains, the entire front yard is overrun by muck," he added.
However, the plan has not factored in the hundreds of vendors who have been selling their produce on the verandah and the courtyard for more than 20 years.
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This means that vendors like 45-year-old Kullamma, who has been selling vegetables here since she remembers, will continue to operate on the road. "The other sellers say I was born here, will make a living here and will eventually die here," says Kullamma. "There is no money to be made here. Could you help me find another job," she asks, her paan-stained teeth breaking in a grin.