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The authorities plan to turn the muddy kitchen market area into a business hub
Published : 07 Apr 2024, 02:27 AM
The government on several occasions in the past attempted to relocate Karwan Bazar commodity market from the heart of Dhaka. This time it appears to be adamant to move the decades-old market to Gabtoli, a key entrance to the capital.
The authorities plan to turn the muddy kitchen market area into a multi-storey business hub, but the details are not finalised yet.
The relocation will begin by evacuating the main building with the wholesale vegetables market on the ground floor and Dhaka North City Corporation Zone-5 office on the first, long considered to be risky for use.
The city corporation office will be relocated to a community centre next to Mohammadpur Shia Mosque, said the DNCC Zonal Executive Officer Mutakabbir Ahmed.
The authorities plan to demolish the building after Eid-ul-Fitr in the second week of April, according to him.
To prepare for the demolition, 176 shops allocated permanently will be moved to Gabtoli, along with 180 leased on annual contracts. The other buildings will be evacuated later.
“There’ll be no market here,” said Mutakabbir.
Alamgir Hosaain, a merchant of Karwan Bazar, said his three brothers are also involved in the business.
“Our entire family will become mere beggars if the market is demolished. There are thousands of families like us,” he said.
Another reason for his concern is the advance payments they have made to farmers.
“We’ve invested millions here. Everything will be gone if the market is gone. Many papers are required to take bank loans, but we give the farmers money without any documents,” he said.
Mohammad Khalilur Rahman has been selling potatoes and onions at Karwan Bazar for 20 years. He lives in Dhaka with his two sons and one daughter.
“We’ll have no means but begging for living. People in Dhaka and other parts of the country owe me around Tk 10 million. I will never get back that money if the market is closed,” he said.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Dhaka North City Corporation thinks the market is making the area with many key offices dirty
- The market is also blamed for traffic congestion as hundreds of trucks have to enter the city and stop at Karwan Bazar every day to unload goods.
- The Karwan Bazar market building was declared ‘abandoned’ in 2013 for risks of collapsing.
- Six years later, a meeting chaired by the Dhaka divisional commissioner recommended relocating Karwan Bazar market.
- Traders have objected to the relocation plan, saying that it will harm people’s habit of buying vegetables and groceries at Karwan Bazar.
- The traders say they will lose their means of income while customers will lose the opportunity to get products at affordable prices after the relocation.
- Customers will have to pay more for added transportation costs if the market is relocated to Gabtoli, the traders argue.
BUSINESS HUB AFTER RELOCATION
Experts from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology or BUET in a 2010 report recommended retrofitting to make the risky Karwan Bazar buildings safe, but the plan was expensive.
So, the local government ministry took a Tk 3.5 billion project that year to rehabilitate the Karwan Bazar traders in Jatrabari and Aminbazar.
“The project has taken shape now. Now it needs allocation of funds,” said Mutakabbir.
DNCC formed a committee in June 2023 after a meeting with the traders. Local MP and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan was present in the meeting. The committee later inspected the sites in Karwan Bazar, Gabtoli, Aminbazar and Jatrabari.
“Everything is being done in light of the inspections,” Mutakabbir said.
He said they were planning to establish a business hub on a 12.5-acre piece of land. “The higher authorities know the details of the plan.”
DNCC Chief Executive Mir Khairul Alam said consultants will be appointed to finalise the plan to build a business hub at Karwan Bazar.
“The business centre will be built in partnership. More details will be confirmed once the government finalises the plan,” he said.
- Leaders of traders said the grocery and vegetable business at Karwan Bazar gained momentum in the 60s when some traders set up shanty-like shops in the area, which was a low-lying and jungle-like area. They filled it with soil later.
- According to Saifur Rahman, general secretary of Karwan Bazar Merchants Association, the Dhaka Improvement Trust or IT, now the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, leased the shops to the traders at Tk 300,000 each in 1983.
- As many as 63 traders were allocated spaces, 400 square feet each, in the market in 1993 after the construction started in 1990.
- Saifur said the traders pay Tk 3.6 million in land tax annually.
- As many as 356 merchants with trade licences sell vegetables and groceries in two tin-roofed markets along the main building.
- Karwan Bazar also houses a fruits market, Abu Sayeed Market and several other markets.
- In total, the markets house around 3,000 merchants.
- Besides the vegetables market, separate markets have been established for wholesale groceries, fish and poultry.
- Many of the shops have been divided into multiple ones.
- With the shop employees, truck drivers, rickshaw van-pullers and labourers, around 20,000 people directly depend on Karwan Bazar for a living.
TRADERS QUESTION RELOCATION PLAN
Traders’ leader Saifur said the city corporation cited several reasons for the planned relocation, such as garbage from the market, traffic congestion and risks of collapse.
“But their main goal is to establish a business hub,” he said.
Saifur dismissed the safety concerns. “The market was given a foundation for 10 storeys just 30 years ago, but only two floors (including the ground floor) were built.
“If such a building is declared risky in such a short period, who will take the liabilities?” he wondered.
He also pointed out that the DNCC kept its zonal office on the first floor for over a decade after the building was declared risky.
“Then how will we believe it’s risky?”
Saifur denied the allegation that trucks at Karwan Bazar cause traffic jams. “The trucks arrive late at night and the unloading is done before morning.”
He said the merchants cannot be blamed for the garbage littered on the streets of Karwan Bazar.
“Doesn’t the city corporation know who puts the shops on the streets? Why don’t they free the area from Janata Tower to Petrobangla? They want us to take part in their loss project. No one wants to do that.”
GABTOLI ‘NOT SUITABLE’
Saifur also argued that Gabtoli or Aminbazar at the north entrance to the city was not a suitable place for a commodity market.
“Even in January, the mayor mentioned Jatrabari during discussions with us. But suddenly on Mar 18, they sent a letter asking us to move to Gabtoli or Aminbazar,” he said.
“That place has small 100 square feet shops, where perishable products cannot be kept properly. For these products, we need spaces with enough light and air,” Saifur said.
In Karwan Bazar, every merchant has 400 square feet plus 10 feet wide streets that can allow two vans to move.
“They [city corporation] have said they will demolish structures to widen the places in Gabtoli. But that won’t be enough. The space is not sufficient for 400-500 trucks overnight,” Saifur said.
“And that place already has sand and brick merchants, along with other businesses. It does not have a dozen entrances or exits like Karwan Bazar.”
WHAT DNCC SAYS
DNCC CEO Khairul defended the decision to relocate Karwan Bazar market: “The commodity markets are situated at the entrance to cities everywhere in the civilised world. Such a market doesn’t fit in the middle of Dhaka.”
He also said Karwan Bazar was not a traditional market for groceries and vegetables.
“Businesses grow a goodwill when they operate at a single place for a long time. It will also happen when they relocate to the new place,” he said.
“When Karwan Bazar was first established, it wasn’t that much famous. Its popularity grew over time.”
The proposed place in Amin Bazar has more modern amenities than Karwan Bazar does, he claimed.
“The city corporation will provide all other facilities the businesses require,” Khairul said.
[Writing in English by Osham-ul-Sufian Talukder]
