With the Delhi High Court ordering shop owners of the heritage Gole Market to vacate the central circular building by the end of this month, the path is now clear for the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to incorporate its ambitious redevelopment plan in the market.
After facing constant opposition from the shopkeepers for over six years, the restoration work of the age-old market and its likely conversion into a museum can now be expected to begin soon.
“The HC has given its decision in our favour. The building is dangerous and requires immediate repairing. This is not possible until the place is vacated. Now we will better the condition structure. But, it is still not decided whether we would convert it into a museum or not,” said a senior NDMC official. Earlier attempts to carry out repair work in the building by the council had failed due to the stiff opposition by the traders there, he added.
To start off with, the civic body will begin work for strengthening the structure by placing RCC columns. The council maintained that the Gole Market is a heritage building. The NDMC, in February this year, had tried to evict people from the central building in order to vacate the place. While the shopkeepers were agitated by the ‘sudden’ and ‘forceful’ act, the council had justified its move stating that the concerned traders never accepted their offer of relocation. The High Court then had slammed the council for not providing proper relocation to the shopkeepers and issued a stay order to them.
Meanwhile, the traders of the market on the other hand, are fighting tooth and nail to retain their age old stores in it.For them, there is still hope as they believe that their stand is just.
“We are planning to move to the Supreme Court now. Earlier they told us that they would revitalise and restore the market for which we were supposed to be temporarily relocated for a period of not more than 54 weeks. But, later we got to know that they are planning to build a museum by literally throwing us out of our shops and giving us unappealing locations instead,” said Anupam Dheer, owner of Galina Restaurant, which was shut in the NDMC’s eviction drive.
The central building of the market currently has 22 shops out of 30. Eight of them have been sealed by the NDMC till now. The ground floor has 14 shops and there are 16 on the first floor.