The Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation (RMC) has approved Rs49.9 million for the restoration and revamping of 300-year-old Raja Bazaar.
The RMC approved another project to install street lights and carpeting of road from Marrir Chowk to Kachehri Chowk at a total cost of Rs26.77 million. The two projects are estimated to cost Rs76.67 million. Contracts for the two projects will be awarded on March 17.
Raja Bazaar is the first and oldest wholesale and retail trade centre in Rawalpindi for the last three centuries. Its usefulness, importance and commercial centralization remain intact till today. It used to have thatched and raw shops in the beginning but when the English set up the Rawalpindi Cantonment, they allowed concrete shops to be set up in Raja Bazaar, where all kinds of items from a needle to an air conditioner are available at wholesale and retail shops.
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It is the only bazaar in Rawalpindi which remains open round-the-clock. Shopping is done here all the time. General shops remain open from 7 am to 12 pm. The wholesale vegetable and fruit market remains open from 10 pm to 6 am. Fruits are sold wholesale from 4 am to 4 pm. Many shops in Raja Bazaar remain open on Fridays, Sundays and even on Eid days.
Apart from Rawalpindi, this historic bazaar has been the wholesale hub of Jhelum, Attock, Chakwal, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
It is the only major market in Rawalpindi where prices of all essential commodities are 20 to 30 per cent lower than other markets in the city and Islamabad. It is also a major hub of flea markets.
Under its renovation project, its roads will be paved, all manholes will be thoroughly be covered, security cameras will be installed and old buildings will be installed. Under the project, new traffic signals will be installed while dividers will be coloured, all street lights of the market will be installed.
Under the other project, traffic signals and street lights will be installed from Marrir Chowk to Kachehri Chowk, tree planting and road carpeting will be done on this VVIP and busiest road.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2022.
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