The Finance Minister of Assam Ajanta Neog announced during the 2024 annual state budget that the Assam Government is moving ahead with its earlier plan of relocating the Fancy Bazar Wholesale Market to the outskirts of Guwahati in a bid to decongest the city and funds have been allocated for the same in this year’s budget.
The announcement was met with mixed reactions from local residents of the Fancy Bazar area with some of them welcoming the move said that the area had indeed become very congested, while others expressed their disappointment as the wholesale market of Fancy Bazar is the backbone of the area and this would lead to added inconvenience for everyone involved.
A Fancy Bazar wholesale businessman expressed that if the market is indeed shifted to the outskirts of the city, it would lead to losses for everyone, and said, “The buyers and sellers would both face losses because the buyers will have to spend extra time and money on transportation, while most of the wholesalers have homes and properties here so they will need to find a new place and then commute back and forth every day which would be extremely inconvenient and time-consuming.”
Another local businessman from Fancy Bazar, Rajkumar Agarwal expressed his scepticism as to how the transition would occur and stated, “Existing business infrastructures can’t be moved. They can build a new market, and the sellers at the old market may face losses if the new market is good, but they can’t just shift the old market. My family has run this business at this place for almost a hundred years. We pay our taxes regularly and the Government cannot close our business down or shift it. Depending on what kind of facilities the Government provides, we may open another business there, but our existing business cannot be shut down or shifted.”
A cloth wholesaler from the Tewari Market at SRCB road said, “I think they are mainly targeting the Gallapatty locality of Fancy Bazar. Since the new bridge is being built from Guwahati to North Guwahati, and the Gallapatty area falls close to where the opening of the bridge is expected to be at, they want the area to be clear. I don’t think the cloth businesses, which people are mostly worried about, will be affected as much.”
A resident of the Gallapatty locality of Fancy Bazar expressed his satisfaction on the news and said that the move will help in reducing congestion in the area currently plagued with extreme traffic and parking issues.
“It’s a good thing only. The area is extremely crowded right now and there is almost always a traffic jam here, even at 3 am in the morning because that’s when the wholesale fruit and vegetable market sits and the traffic and parking issues arise from that time only and persist throughout the day. The parking issues are especially troubling and even I have difficulties in finding a spot even though I am a local resident,” he said.
Additional details about the decision are awaited by the public, most of whom are anxious to see how the Government will handle the issue and if their concerns will be noted or ignored.
