Hidden in the folds of Bangalore are certain places one never knew existed. One such place is Ramachandrapuram. Located in a corner of Srirampuram in Rajajinagar, the area is a mini textile haven where you get unstitched clothes for a very good price.
The 480-plus shops operating across a few mains and crosses in this area have variety of clothes for sale. Hosiery cloth, bedsheets, saris, churidar pieces, printed cotton clothes, velvette, satin, georgette and more varieties are available here. Some shops sell only cut-pieces while some sell curtain clothes and some have bundles of clothes of all varieties. The most attractive feature is the pricing. Some sellers charge the clothes per kilogram, while some charge per meter. “Ten years ago, the merchants in the area used to sell only cut-pieces (chindi) purchased from garment factories around Bangalore. Then the garment and export business took a hit. Now we source the materials from garment factories across India, like Thiruppur or Salem in Tamil Nadu, or from Panipath, Baroda or Mumbai, for lesser price. We segregate them and sell them for the best price in Bangalore. You don’t get clothes this cheap even in Commercial Streets or Chikpet,” says Ponraj, a cloth merchant on the 1st main road of Ramachandrapuram.
Jerkins, windcheaters, T-shirts, kurtas etc make the shopping here exciting, for retail customers. “I started small with cut-piece selling. We used to sell our materials only to wholesalers. But since last 10 years, we have been selling clothes directly to retail customers too,” says Saravanan, who has put up a shop of sari ghaghra materials.
Some shops are dedicated to textile accessories like buttons, threads, needles, beads, zips, stickers, bundles of cotton cut-pieces meant for pockets and collars of mens’ shirts and pants, elastics, and more. All these attract textile factories, designers as well as professional and amateur tailors. People from across Bangalore and places like Bellary come here to shop.
The area that was uninhabited 30 years ago is now bustling with activity. The fact that Srirampuram, known for notorious rowdies, is nearby, does not affect the business anymore. “There were days when rowdies used to lift cloth bundles, stuff them into autos and take them away without anybody’s fear. Thanks to police, all that has come under control and we can carry out our business without fear,” says Gandhi Raj, who was once the association president of the area.