Devaraja Market, 100, is on the verge of collapse, says ‘Deccan Herald’ headline. Two of its shops crumbled in the recent rains. Another downpour, many more would go. No upkeep work done for years.
Where’s the cash, asks mayor, Ms Bharathi. Rent and levy payable by shopkeepers were fixed years back (does anyone remember?); and this, too, is not being paid regularly by all traders. The municipal corporation gets Rs.27 lakhs in levy; it spends Rs.25 lakhs on routine maintenance. Devaraja Market has 727 shops, spread over 1.58 lakh sq.ft.
Heritage: Built as model market of that time during the rule of Chikkadevaraja Wadaiyar, the place has been declared by the government as ‘heritage site’.
Future: A heritage in ruins, it may well become, in the absence of timely action. So much pricey space in such prime locality is bound to give ideas to any property developer. Heritage caretakers and town planners would be naïve, if they see no writings on the wall.
Two more shops – footwear and hair dresser – facing Sayyaji Rao Road have caved in.
Deveraja Marker damage trail: 1981: Blaze gutted 350 shops; More fires in 1990 and 1999 damaged 600 and 16 shops respectively. The market gate facing Ane Sarot Street collapsed due to poor maintenance.
A Mysorean whose middle name is ‘persistence’ has, yet again, suggested - 1) Devaraja Market building on Sayaji Rd. be restored to match its original façade, and 2) the stretch of road in front of the market be turned into a pedestrian plaza. The idea comes from Mr H R Bapu Satyanarayaana, expert on transport and former chief engineer, union ministry of surface transport. He told the Deccan Herald he had submitted a detailed report to as many as three municipal commissioners, who offered him gratitude, appreciation, and little else.
Creating a no-vehicle zone on Sayaji Rd. may not find favour with the motorists and two-wheelers lobby that wouldn’t want to give up their parking space for pedestrian plaza. Mr Satyanarayana recalls that a now-forgotten comprehensive development plan (CDP) for the city had provision for a multi-storey parking complex. The plan got dropped in favour of the city bus stand that has since come up. Now, with the availability of Makkaji Chowk land, suggests the concerned Mysorean, the municipal corporation would do well to drop its shopping mall proposal in favour of building a multi-storey parking lot right behind the K R Circle shopping arcade.
As for the Makkaji Chowk mall project, Mr Satyanarayana reckons that it is best buried, with an epitaph that may well read, ‘here lies a project that was ill-conceived, short-sighted, and smacked of real-estate scam’.
(The pedestrian plaza, if I may add, can have park benches placed in corners for use by tired shoppers and tourists on loose ends who can watch the world go by from the vantage seat on a park bench. On a corner of the plaza there could be a makeshift band-stand, where our home-grown artistes can take turns playing their favourite instruments purely for self-advertisement.)
