One chapter of Indo-Pak (1947) partition dairy, one can read in streets of Asia’s popular textile market — Gandhi Nagar. The pain of separation from native is still in their heart but these fighter businessmen are resolved to mark their victory to make this market number one in global ranking .
This market is hub of hundreds of businessman who started their journey to become a successful businessman about seventy years ago and with their continuous efforts and patience; they have been successful to establish a market with over 30,000 shops and 10,000 in-house small cloth factories.
The market hosts different people with various set of choices as it meets with the requirements of not only traders but people of different age group too. Des Raj Malhotra, president of Association of Wholesale Readymade Garments Market, Subhash Raod, said traders from Dubai, Chennai , Kolkata, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan visit market for goods.
“We bring cloths from Mumbai and Amritsar and sell majorly in North India,” said Malhotra.
When asked GST and demonetisation impact on their business, the businessman replied with smile on his face, “The decisions of Modi Government did not affect much our trading business.” “Our entire network is doing business on five per cent tax theory, it is same as it was before the implementation of GST, we get benefit post-GST indeed,” he said. “Although we faced problems for 15 days during demonitisation, now everything is fine,” the president of market said.
Another shop owner Shahil in Gandhi Nagar area said it is one of the most congested colonies in Delhi with a population of around 3.50 lakh.
The Old Delhi market is popular for buying readymade clothes in kilogrammes.
The narrow road in Gandhi Nagar market has retail outlets on both sides — traders on one side dealing with exclusive in Denim wear, instance -Jackets, Jeans and other sort of regular Denim.
The narrow roads further split over a dozen lanes and these lanes named as Ashok Gali, Prem Gali, Guru Nanak Gali, together make the wholesale hub, with some traders having established their shops in less to very less area.
According to Malhotra, the price of front face shops are in crores. In the wholesale market, there are many dealer distributors for the brands like Dare, levis, Newport, Oxemberg, Pepe, Spykar, lee Jeans, Nivea Casuals, Puff, Message Trouser, Taleta, Peter England, Defencer Shirt, Raymond suits, leCarde Menswear, Gini and Jony, liliput Kids wear.
Migrated to Delhi from Kemghan village, 30 km away from India-Pakistan border, these punjabi traders are building the trust of their employees.
“It is a rule of this market, it never send any worker empty stomach back. Thousands workers come here to earn their livelihood,” said a trader.
“People earned from here and bought properties in sector areas,” said an owner of 15 shops in Ashok Gali.
The Association president said that the market started with a few shops.
In 1984, when Punjab was boiling during emergency, many traders came to Delhi and settled here. The market evolved further and now supply readymade garments in weekly markets in Chadni Chowk, Purana Quila, Gaziabad, Meerut , some rural areas in Gurugram and Rajasthan.