BENGALURU: Traders are up in arms against the BBMP which wants to raze old shops in Gandhi Baazar to make way for a multilevel parking complex. The traders stopped the JCB drive on Monday, and demanded a written assurance from the BBMP commissioner that their shops will be reallotted.
Under its Smart City Project, BBMP is aiming to build a multilevel car park, with shops in the basement.
Gopinath, member of the Gandhi Bazaar Traders’ Association, said that BBMP had transferred the project to Bangalore Smart City Limited (BSCL) and JCB machines had razed the walls of two shops on Monday.
“We reached out to the joint commissioner’s office to express our concern. We gathered in large numbers and stopped the drive. The officials said they would give us a letter of assurance on allotment of shops from the BBMP executive engineer, once the project is complete, but our demand is that the letter should either come from the BBMP chief commissioner or South Zone joint commissioner,” he said.
Bengaluru Smart City Limited officials said the Palike had served an eviction notice to 37 shops earlier, as the market is in a dilapidated condition and needs immediate intervention. “Under the BSCL project, a multilevel project will come up and 180 cars can be parked. The project will also have shops at the basement level, and 47 shops will be built at a cost of Rs 20 crore,” an official said.
The traders fear that once the project is complete, they will not get the shops as BBMP may opt for a tender process. However, BBMP officials stated many traders had not paid rent for decades, and feared a crackdown by BBMP.