BENGALURU: Visitors to Chickpet, one of the city’s largest wholesale markets, should be prepared for chaos for at least the next 100 days. The market, already congested, has become even more chaotic and challenging to navigate over the past month due to ongoing white-topping work on one side of its narrow road.
The market, within the Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao’s Gandhinagar constituency, is home to hundreds of clothing stores, hotel ware shops, electronics outlets and numerous small eateries, and is visited by thousands of people daily, who are now struggling to even walk through the area. Shop and restaurant owners on BVK Iyengar Road reported that their revenue has decreased by 20-30% because customers, finding it hard to navigate, do not visit as frequently.
When TNIE visited the area, the shop owners said they were being told that the work would be completed in a month. However, a BBMP official confirmed that currently only BWSSB has laid the pipelines. Following this, BBMP will begin their work and the overall project is expected to take over 100 days.
Shop owners claimed that the road has been dug up for a month, yet no significant progress has been made during this time. “Customer count and sales have decreased. Most of our customers, who run Darshinis, used to come by two-wheeler to load their items. However, due to the current conditions, they find it difficult to commute and have started purchasing from other areas,” Pankaj, who owns a hotelware shop, said. “The customers said it is to avoid the temporary chaos, but we risk losing customers in the process. In 100 days, people can find 100 different alternatives to switch to. Where will we end up,” he questioned.
Badrinath, who runs an eatery about a few metres away from the Chickpet metro station, said, “The roads were already in decent condition, and while the new construction work may seem helpful in the long run, we are losing customers daily. Previously, people would stop at our shop for snacks after getting off at Chickpet metro, but now the crowd is dwindling. By evening, there are hardly any visitors, only traffic.”
Trade activist Sajjan Raj Mehta said, “When authorities undertake work on such busy routes, they should ensure that a board displaying the names of the responsible authorities, along with contact numbers and a deadline, is provided. Those exceeding the deadline should face penalties.”
Mehta mentioned that the lack of coordination among BWSSB, BBMP and other civic bodies is directly affecting the daily operations of businesses in the area, further making life harder for those who rely on this bustling location for their livelihoods.
Despite the traffic being regulated to one-way, by evening, two-wheelers start coming from the other side, blocking the road for up to an hour, a shopkeeper said. “The stretch is a major connecting link to the north and south parts of the city, yet decisions were made without informing us. Despite being aware of the high footfall in the area, which could impact our livelihoods, the authorities suddenly began digging without consulting or even informing any of us,” he lamented.