Nyaymandir barricaded, traders of Padmavati stare at eviction

According to Kanjwani, the traders are willing to accept an alternative space in compensation if they are evicted. “Their only submission to the commissioner was that they should be rehabilitated as their livelihood depends on these shops they are in possession of… They are willing to take an alternate commercially viable space. The commissioner heard the traders and has shown a positive response to the request,” he said.

According to VMC officials, the Padmavati shopping complex, which is at least four decades old, is spread across an area of 60,000 square feet and houses about 240 shops. The traders are tenants of the VMC.

An official said, “Many of the traders have not even paid the stipulated rent to the VMC for decades… They are also aware that the shopping complex is in a rundown state and needs urgent renovation… it is to their benefit to offer to vacate and take a new space as compensation.”

VMC officials, however, added that a proposal is yet to be moved regarding the plan for putting Nyaymandir to use. On Monday, the VMC began barricading the periphery and put up boards warning owners of private cars parked in the periphery to remove their vehicles or face action.

Located in the heart of Vadodara, across the Sursagar lake, the building created by architect Robert Chisholm was shut since March 2018.

Built at a cost of Rs 7 lakh, it was originally titled Chimnabai Nyay Mandir after the first wife of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, at the time of its inauguration on November 30, 1896, by Viceroy Lord Elgin.

The structure was first intended to be a two-storeyed vegetable market but when Maharaja Sayajirao III witnessed the grandeur of the structure, he changed his mind and turned it into a town hall and a court.