Badami Bagh market to be moved

DCO directs municipal administration to shift wholesale fruit and vegetable market to an alternate location.

LAHORE: District Coordination Officer (DCO) Ahad Cheema has directed the municipal administration to shift the wholesale fruit and vegetable market near the Badami Bagh bus terminal to an alternate location.

The directive came in a meeting at his office attended by revenue and town municipal officers. He said the new venue must be easily accessible and all stake holders must be taken board. The land allocated for the purpose should not be less then 425 kanals. He said the new market should be designed in accordance with the City District Government (CDGL) rules and regulations and none of the corridors should be less then 50 feet wide. Cheema said the move was imperative because the vehicles bringing the commodities tended to block the adjacent roads, as the drivers often parked them on the road and started unloading.

The dealers and retailers voiced several reservations. “The shifting of such a market is not as simple as the administration possibly believes” Muhammad Shafi, a vegetable dealer said. Masood Awan, another dealer, who said he had been working in the market for 15 years, said “shifting the market means shifting the entire infrastructure.”

Muhammad Shahid, a retailer who usually buys fruit from the market and sells it at his shop in Santnagar, said relocation of the market was bound to create new transportation problems. Currently, he said, most retailers reached the market using their motorcycles, bicycles and donkey carts.

A CDGL officer too said shifting the market alone may not solve the problems the DCO wanted to address. For starters, he said, finding suitable land for the purpose was not going to be easy.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2010.