The Times of India 29.09.2010
KMC scraps Park Circus Market revamp
KOLKATA: It’s official now. The much-touted Park Circus market modernisation project has been scrapped by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) which dilly-dallied over for it for around three years. The Trinamool Congress-run civic board finally decided to do away with the project, which was once touted as one of the most ambitious projects of the city.
Confirming the decision, mayor Sovan Chatterjee said he was not interested in the project planned by the Left Front board.
The present civic board, said Chatterjee, could not honour an “irrational agreement” signed by the previous Left Front board with Reliance. “I want to make it clear that we are not interested in the project,” said the mayor.
However, former mayor Bikash Bhattacharya said the agreement was inked, following all required procedures. It could have been one of the major projects in Kolkata had some traders not objected to it. “Transparency was the key word in whatever projects we undertook. But in this particular project, we had failed to hand over the market in accordance with the agreement signed with Reliance,” he said.
Three years ago, Reliance Retail was awarded the contract for modernisation of Park Circus market. The KMC inked a build-operate and transfer (BOT) agreement with Reliance Retail in 2008 and agreed to hand over the market to them in six months. According to project plans, the Reliance was supposed to demolish the century-old market and build a new retail market. Around 500 traders registered with the KMC market department were to get back their space in the new market. The remaining space was supposed to be used by Reliance which was to convert it into one of the biggest retail chains in the city. Reliance Retail had paid `33 crore to the KMC for the project, three years ago.
However, the project could not see the light of day as the former Left Front-run civic board missed several deadlines to hand over the market to Reliance. The Left-run board had arranged for rehabilitation of the 500 traders at a temporary shelter at Park Circus Maidan in 2009. But the traders did not want to shift there, fearing loss of business. According to Mohammed Iqbal, who runs a stationery shop at Park Circus market, the traders were not willing to shift because they feared that once the stall was handed over to the civic authorities, it might be difficult to get back the same amount of space at the same location. “Besides, we don’t know how long will it take to reconstruct the market. We can’t go to Park Circus maidan if we lose business,” he said.
A section of KMC market department officials, however, felt that the present board would have to change its mindset and go in for modernisation of the market.
“We need to save the crumbling market by remodelling it at the earliest. We also need to ensure that the present stall owners are accommodated once the modernisation is complete” said a KMC official.
