NEW DELHI: At long last, the
New Delhi Municipal Council
has appointed a consultant for the much-awaited redevelopment of Khan Market. Envisioned several years ago, the project has been in a limbo due to constantly changing plans. The consultant will prepare the detailed designs for the proposal to merge
Khan Market
and the adjoining Prithviraj Market into an integrated plaza with shops and restaurants.
NDMC chairman Naresh Kumar said that the tender documents are being processed and will be floated soon. “Under the redevelopment project, we plan to merge Prithviraj Market and Khan Market and make the area a vehicle-free zone once a multilevel parking lot is constructed,” said Kumar.
The integrated market area will be beautified and new
street furniture
and digital panels installed. It will be a free WiFi zone. However, Kumar stressed that the proposal was in the initial stages and it would take at least three years to implement the entire plan.
NDMC had appointed a consultant in 2011 for a proposed walkway in the existing middle lane. However, several objections were raised by the traders, leading to the revision of the plan in 2013. The civic body later decided to link the second floor of the market structure to the skywalk. It had conceived of the skywalk as a fire exit in the congested market. NDMC approved the plan in 2015, but scrapped it soon enough.
In 2011, Delhi high court had ordered NDMC to develop a dedicated parking facility in Khan Market in a bid to decongest the tony commercial hub. However, traders are annoyed that seven years after the court’s order, the parking is non-existent.
Sanjiv Mehra, president of Khan Market Traders Association, was clear that the foremost focus should be the multilevel parking facility. “Redevelopment of the market has been proposed several times, but there are practical issues with NDMC’s plan that need to be sorted out,” Mehra observed. “The market is privately owned and there are multiple owners of a single plot. If NDMC plans to merge two markets and create an integrated plaza, there will be problems related to floor area ratio.”
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