Markets to get a make over

The NDMC has approved a scheme to completely pedestrianise Khan Market. 8220;Do you take your car up to Oxford Street when you want to shop? Then why can8217;t you walk here? And then you say Delhi markets are pathetic,8221; asks NDMC chairman B.P. Mishra.

For Khan Market, the NDMC has identified areas where vehicles can be parked. 8220;The idea is to make Khan Market a pedestrian8217;s paradise where one can only bump into a friend, not another car,8221; he says.

The makeover seems to have helped traders of Pandara Park who initially feared that if a consumer was not allowed to park his car near the shop, he would not shop there. Vinod Wadhwa, owner of Pindi another restaurant affirms: 8220;Our sales have gone up by an estimated 20 per cent because of the beautification.8221;

Even the facades of the houses over the shops are being changed to merge with the pink and yellow tiles of the market centre.

The NDMC did not pay through its nose for this. 8220;The traders pay 30 per cent of the total cost. The Pandara Road project cost us Rs 16 lakh of which traders paid Rs 6 lakh,quot; Mishra says.

Khan Market, according to the scheme, will be turned grassy. The central park, 8220;which used to be a park,8221; as an official points out, will have a fountain, trees and also landscaped accordingly.

8220;The Pandara Park Market revamp has helped us a lot. While we were chasing these market associations to help us get their markets beautified, now they are chasing us to get it done,8221; says Mishra.

Though they were chasing the Khan Market traders for one year it was only yesterday that they agreed to the scheme which will now be thrashed out between the traders and the NDMC.

After Khan Market, the target is the Regal Building complex where there are ideas to beautify the already well-arched buildings of Connaught Place with more trees and benches outside. We are working on traders of Connaught Place. We will soon have the whole place revamped if they agree,8221; Mishra says.

The other areas in pipeline are Sarojini Nagar, Malcha Marg market and Janpath.