Delhi: South MCD outlines new revamp plan for Meharchand market

With a view to provide relief to 130-odd traders of Meharchand Market, a commercial hub near Lodhi Colony in south Delhi, where shops have been lying sealed since 2018 over building code violations, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has outlined a new redevelopment plan with a revised standard facade regulation, and a 2.4 metre wide verandah on the ground floor, with projections on the first and second floors allowed up to the verandah line, said civic officials.

The over seven decade old market besides Lodi Art District was once known for its designer clothes and boutiques with several mid-level grocery shops wedged between them. But the quaint market place lost its growth trajectory after 135 of 153 properties were partially sealed in January 2018, on the directions of a three-member Supreme Court appointed monitoring committee. The ground floors were spared while the sealing action focussed on illegal basements and upper floors, an SDMC official said.

The last attempt in August 2020 to create a redevelopment plan, according to which traders will have to demolish the existing structures and rebuild the market adhering to the new norms, has so far failed to materialise or elicit any interest, officials said, prompting the civic body to go back to the drawing board.

A letter from municipal commissioner Gyanesh Bharti to the standing committee on November 12, 2021, shows that a series of joint meetings were held by municipal architects, town planners and building department officials between August and November to draw up redevelopment plan.

The revised plan has limited the height of shops to 10.95 metres, instead of 10.5m proposed earlier, and shops have been divided in two categories– 38.69 square metre (sqm) shops and 40.05sqm for corner plots. The plan also allowed basements with the entry from the front.

“All the existing structures will be demolished before the start of new construction. The department will declare Meharchand Market as pedestrian shopping street due to non-availability of parking space in the vicinity of market,” the final plan moved by layout scrutiny committee (LOSC) of SDMC said.

LOSC has also directed the cell overseeing parking management to explore a new parking plan for the market. For a uniform look, the facade plan envisages that the walls and columns of the market will be beige up to the signboards, with a maroon laminate cladding above it.

All shop shutters will be painted silver, while the veranda and steps will be paved with ruby red granite stone, the plan proposed.

Ashok Sakhuja, who heads Meharchand Market Association, said, “We had requested them to incorporate veranda and entry to basement from the front, which has been done.”

Leader of the house Inderjeet Sehrawat said the matter will be taken up in the next standing committee meeting for further discussion and relief is expected to be granted to traders.