BENGALURU: After seven long years, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) air-conditioned ‘Palike Bazaar’, built underground on the lines of New Delhi’s ‘Palika Bazaar’, will be inaugurated by August-end, BBMP officials said. The construction work for the market began in December 2017. It will have 79 shops.
A BBMP contractor, involved in the project, told TNIE, “The work is in the final stages of completion. It will be done in just a few days. We are gearing up to inaugurate the bazaar, a first of its kind in Bengaluru.”
Sensor-controlled doors
The market will have sensor-controlled doors and two entries and will have escalators and lifts for the easy entry and exit of visitors. “The majority of the work has been completed. Just the final touches have to be given and we are hopeful of completing it and opening the bazaar by the month-end,” he said. The market is 100 metres in length and 11 metres in breadth with shops on either side.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Vijaynagar MLA Krishnappa and others are expected to inaugurate the bazaar.
But there is no clarity on how the 79 shops will be allocated as vendors in the area were evicted for the construction of the bazaar.
Photos and videos of the yet-to-be-opened bazaar are doing the rounds on social media and this has also triggered a debate on the fate of the vendors. As the bazaar is underground, some netizens have already started raising concerns over the fate of the market during heavy rain as Bengaluru gets flooded often.