Deccan Chronicle 02.02.2010
City to get 200 swanky markets
Feb. 1: The BBMP plans to plough in Rs 1,300 crore in the city to construct 200 swanky market-cum-commercial complexes which will provide a shopping experience on the lines of supermarkets, making as many things available as possible under one roof.
Multi-level parking lots have been planned for the markets to make sure that people don’t have to hunt for parking space.
Unlike private commercial malls and complexes, the shops here will be within reach of vegetable vendors as well who the BBMP hopes, will prefer them to city pavements in future. Locations for the markets are being identified, especially in the newly added areas, in the hope that once they come up here, people from the outskirts will not feel the need to come to the more central parts of the city for their provisions, which could help solve traffic congestion as well.
BBMP has been scouting for suitable vacant land and is planning to build the larger ones on five acres of land, mainly on the outskirts of the city, the medium sized markets on up to three acres and the small ones on about two acres. They will be given to agencies to execute under a Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) basis, sources said. The idea is to promote economic development while supporting local products and local exchange of goods, they added.
Once the plan is approved, a Detailed Project Report will be prepared to get things going. “Besides building the new markets the existing 13 markets will be given a facelift with parking space and so on,” BBMP officers said.
