BANGALORE: Union Minister for External Affairs S M Krishna strongly advocated the rebuilding of the fire ravaged Russell Market structure in Shivajinagar to its original state and opposed any move to demolish it or build a high-rise building in its place.
Krishna paid a visit to the destroyed structure on Monday and announced `1 crore towards its reconstruction from his MPLAD fund. He expressed sympathy for the vendors who lost their shops in the fire incident. He described the Russell Market as the iconic place in the IT city regularly visited by Bangaloreans to buy farm-fresh vegetables, fruits and other daily use items.
BBMP officials who were present during his visit said that as many as 174 shops operating in the building were gutted completely in the incident.
Krishna also met the representatives of the Russell Market Traders Association and assured them to take up with the authorities to rebuild the structure. He also opposed any move by the Civic authorities to build a mall or any high rise building in the place.
“The iconic structure should be rebuilt its original state,” he said.
The authorities have estimated a loss of over `1.20 crore and the Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda has announced a compensation of `50,000 per shop.