A day after Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced the development of the textile market in Gandhi Nagar as a "grand garment hub", traders at the Gandhi Nagar textile market said that the decision will generate more revenue and thousands of jobs in the city.

Presenting the Budget in the Delhi Assembly for the financial year 2022-23 on Saturday, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced that the Government has planned to develop the textile market in Gandhi Nagar as a "grand garment hub" and it will be re-branded and repositioned to also generate more jobs in the next five years.

"Retailers and shopkeepers have been demanding the restructuring of the market for quite a long time as several structural flaws have prevented the growth of their businesses," K K Balli, president of the Association of Wholesale Readymade Garment Dealers (Gandhi Nagar) told PTI.There are around 15,000 shops in the market which has been dubbed as Asia's biggest wholesale market, according to Balli. This is first time when grievances and suggestions of the traders have been considered, he said.

"It is a welcoming step. We made a representation with the authorities regarding the infrastructure problems in the area several times. We are very thankful to government for announcement," he said. "The market has potential to generate more revenue and it can provide employment to thousands of people. The announcement has been welcomed by retailers and shopkeepers," he added.

Balli informed that market required a sewage system, and proper wiring as well as transformers need to be installed. Moreover, he noted, there is no single multi-storey parking which prevents customers from shopping in markets."This is first time that our grievances and suggestions have been considered. For several years we have been bearing the brunt of poor infrastructure in region. We hope that budget allocated for development of market will help in infrastructure improvements," he added.

Sisodia on Saturday said the Delhi government plans to develop this market in Gandhinagar as "a grand garment hub" so that if people use some garments from here, they could say it with pride that this is ready-made in Delhi.

"This requires legal recognition, infrastructure redevelopment, construction of new service centres and re-branding, marketing and re-positioning of Gandhi Nagar," he had said. This programme is expected to create more than 40,000 new employment opportunities in next five years, the deputy chief minister had said. In his speech, he had also said city government will provide an online platform, named "Delhi Bazaar", for local merchants to join it and sell online. "Promoting 'Go Local', we will set up a 'Delhi Bazaar' that will function as a virtual store 24x7. This arrangement will be done for our local traders at 'Zero Setup Cost' i.E. 'Zero Expense'," he had said.

Elated by the announcement, a trader at the Gandhi Nagar market said the place has been lagging for years due to poor infrastructure, and added that he is hopeful that their businesses will improve if these plans are implemented.

"We have raised several issues for many years. There is a big traffic and parking problem which has prevented customers from coming here. We have potential. We not only have national customers but we do business with traders of several other countries, those in middle east and eastern Africa," Ashish Khurana, who has a retail business of readymade clothes in Gandhi Nagar, said.