Budget promises sprawling market spaces in Bengaluru with more facilities

Karnataka government abandoned the plan of translocating markets to larger grounds

Be it the bubonic plague or the cholera outbreak during the pre-Independence era, Bengaluru city had seen them as an opportunity to transform in their aftermaths.

But the Covid-19 pandemic has severely dented economic activities in the city, prompting the government to push crowded markets at the centre of residential neighbourhoods to more spacious places.

Despite toying with the idea of translocating markets to larger grounds to ensure physical distancing, lack of infrastructure meant the government had to abandon the plan.

Undaunted, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has proposed in his budget on Monday to set up new markets in sprawling spaces, hinting at decongesting the KR Market and Kalasipalya market in the heart of the city.

Read more: Karnataka Budget 2021-22: Big projects get a boost as irrigation receives Rs 21,181 crore

Flower market

The Chief Minister announced that the government would set up an exclusive flower market. “The well-equipped flower market will be constructed at a cost of Rs 50 crore on an eight-acre land at Baiyappanahalli by the Yeshwantpur Agricultural Produce Market Committee,” he said.

In fact, Horticulture Minister R Shankar had stressed the need for a dedicated flower market in Bengaluru during his visit to the National Horticultural Fair-2021 at Hesaraghatta in February.

With an increasing parcel of land being covered under floriculture in Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagar and Kolar, flower cultivators have been flooding the already crowded KR Market to sell their produce.

Similarly, the Chief Minister said: “A state-of-the-art vegetable market will be constructed on a 42-acre area at Gulimangala village attached to the Singena Agrahara Fruit Market.”

During the lockdown period, the state government experimented with the idea by shifting the vegetable market to the Dasanapura APMC market yard off Tumakuru Road near Nelamangala. However, traders demanding better facilities refused to shift entirely to the new market.

Much of Bengaluru’s vegetable trade is currently centred around the old market inside Kalasipalya and KR Market. With the outbreak of Covid clusters surrounding the KR Market region during the pandemic, the state government was forced to decide on decongesting the markets within the city limits.