The much-awaited shifting the existing grocery market located in the narrow lanes of Itwari and Maskasath to a state-of-the-art facility at mouza Chikhli (Deo) in East Nagpur will soon be a reality as the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) has recently sanctioned the proposal. The Nagpur Itwari Kirana Merchants Association, the body of 665 merchants building the project, is now preparing to float tender for the Rs 250-300 crore project. Harish Krishnani, Convenor of the Chikhli Market Committee of the association, said that the committee will call tender for the project within next 30-40 days. “After getting the NIT sanction, we have recently paid Rs 11 crore to the NIT on account of demand. Now, we are appointing a project management consultant (PMC) which will guide us to complete the project,” he told The Hitavada on Sunday.

 

The construction work of the proposed market on a 16 acre land is expected to be over in next two years. The association has a target to shift all the existing kirana shops in Itwari and Maskasath to the new facility by 2027. “All the members are excited to shift to the new location as early as possible. They are all supporting us and thus we hope to complete it within the scheduled time,” he said. Architect Virendra Khare’s V K Associates has already designed a master plan of the new market with all modern facilities. It will have a spacious parking space, broad internal roads, a space of at least 1000 square feet area for all the 665 occupants, solar power system, rainwater harvesting facility, round the clock security, waste water treatment plant and other modern facilities.

 

It is important to note that the existing kirana market in the Itwari and Maskasath area lacks all such facilities because of which merchants and even the customers face hardship. As it is one of the oldest markets in the city, there is no proper space for vehicle parking. The new location at Chikhli (Deo) is at a distance of about 3.5 km from the existing Itwari-Maskasath area. It is in the vicinity of the Kalamna market yard and thus the merchants have no fears of losing the customers. It was in 2004, the State Government had allotted the land to the associations and asked the merchants to shift their shops to the new place. However, for the reasons best known to the office-bearers of the association, the project could not see light of the day till November 2020 when The Nagpur Itwari Kirana Merchants Association officially did the registry of the land.