Owing to the poor maintenance and negligence of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), the peripheral blocks of the Gole Market are lying in deplorable state once again.
Just after over three years of its redevelopment, plaster from the pillars and walls of the blocks has started to peel off. The gloomy and deplorable state of the market is crying for an immediate attention of the civic body.
In 2009, the NDMC renovated the peripheral blocks by removing the plaster of the buildings and applying a fresh coat of lime plaster on it. The aim of doing so was to retrieve the original Victorian look in the wake of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Now, the buildings posses a haggard look.
“While they improved the façade of the two blocks, the onus of maintenance of the insides of the shops was on the shopkeepers. The NDMC made the verandah in front of our shops, strengthened the pillars and ceiling, and built a tiny boundary ahead of the pillars. Even the old stone slabs, mentioning about the type of shop, were taken out and highlighted. We were happy initially, but now just in three years everything has started falling apart,” said Deepak, owner of shop number 53.
The Gole Market was a market built by the Britishers where sections in the buildings were earmarked for what it sold. Shops reading ‘fruits and vegetables’, ‘poultry and fish’, ‘bakery’, etc were engraved in stone slabs and put above the arches in the wall.
“It’s evident that the contractor had used low quality material in the repair work. If it rains heavily, then all the water would come in the verandah flooding our shops also. There is no proper outlet for the water,” said Usman, another shop owner complaining of inadequate drainage system.
The council during that time had produced a detailed plan for the redevelopment of entire Gole Market including main circular structure, which later got stuck due to the shopkeepers resisting the move and filed a case in court. The civic body had spent over Rs seven crore for the refurbishment of these blocks.
However, the NDMC claimed that the work carried out by the civic body was not part of the redevelopment plan of the market. “The work done in 2009 was just repair work. We did the finishing and it was nothing major. If it is wearing off then we will look upon the matter and take the necessary action,” said an official in the Council.