Underused Kedarnath Market in Gaya symbolises mismanagement

Gaya: Despite owning prime land in several parts of the city, including the strategically important G B Road, the Gaya Municipal Corporation continues to remain financially stressed for most of the time, as its assets are heavily underutilised and, in some cases, completely unutilised.The most valuable asset of the Gaya Municipal Corporation is the Kedarnath Market. Spread over nearly four acres of prime land and estimated to have a market value of more than Rs 1,000 crore, the municipal body still depends largely on govt grants and statutory receipts to sustain its day-to-day functioning. The gross underutilisation of the Kedarnath Market land stands out as a textbook case of prolonged mismanagement.At present, around 400 vegetable wholesalers, retailers and other vendors occupy this prime land and carry out business in what officials describe as primitive and unhygienic conditions. Filth, garbage, and rotten vegetables and fruits lie scattered across the area, causing inconvenience to the general public while depriving the municipal body of revenue worth several crores.In most cities, such centrally located land would be developed into a major growth engine. In Gaya, however, the Kedarnath Market in its existing form has come to symbolise filth and squalor, presenting what many describe as an offensive and depressing picture.Apart from Kedarnath Market, the municipal body owns valuable land parcels off Jagjivan Road, Station Road and Church Road, among other locations. The situation in these areas, sources said, is no different.Lalji Prasad, a former member of the corporation’s empowered committee, said that prolonged neglect has led to widespread encroachment on municipal land. “A sizeable part of the municipal land has come under encroachment, and removing these illegal squatters is easier said than done,” he said.While Kedarnath Market continues to be used for vegetable and fruit trade in a highly inefficient manner, the sprawling campus off Jagjivan Road, north of the Gaya Circuit House — earlier the office of the Gaya Regional Development Authority — is currently being used to dump abandoned sanitary hardware, mobile toilets, JCB machines and various vehicles deployed for waste carriage and disposal.Conceding that the landed assets of the municipal body, including Kedarnath Market and the former GRDA complex, could be put to far better use, municipal commissioner Abhishek Palasia said he had taken charge only recently and was working on plans for improved utilisation of these assets.He also acknowledged that portions of municipal land were under adverse possession and said making them encroachment-free was his first priority. Without spelling out details, the municipal commissioner said both Kedarnath Market and the former GRDA complex featured prominently in his plans.“As a first step, the existing vegetable and fruit shops will be relocated to the Bazar Samiti complex at Chandauti,” Palasia said.He said the plan would focus not only on revenue generation but also on meeting the needs of residents, including proper parking facilities, convenient shopping spaces and employment generation. “Traffic requirements of the city will also be kept in mind while planning the utilisation of the Kedarnath Market land,” he added.Earlier, it may be recalled, a proposal had been floated to develop the Kedarnath Market area under the PPP mode, as the municipal body lacked both the financial resources and technical expertise required for such a large-scale redevelopment project.