A 70-acre land was acquired for the purpose of building a concrete market at Tikri Khampur to shift the Azadpur fruits and vegetable wholesale market. The land acquisition dates back to 1997 bringing the plan to a 25 year wait.
Earlier in June-July, the market was briefly shifted to the area to regulate the emission of inter-state trucks from entering the city. Delhi Government built a temporary market for diesel trucks to unload in the Tikri Market from where the CNG cars distributed the products into different parts of the city.
Azadpur Agricultural Market Produce Committee has repeatedly registered pleas on the market congestion to authorities as the condition remained to deteriorate as more vendors came in. Even though the plan was completed in 2019, Covid delayed any further proceedings regarding the execution of the plan.
Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board, DAMB has been responsible for preparing the plan for the market architecture. It has been designed to have a multistoried building with 800 shops along with parking space for over 1200 vehicles and a total of five farmers’ sheds.
The building also will have space for government offices, banks, and restaurants. Earlier ₹280 crores were sanctioned to execute the plan and start the construction of a boundary wall.
Many organizations have questioned the delay in the process which has not been answered by authorities. Since sanctioning of the fund for the boundary wall, it has been 5 years and no work toward the progression of the plan was visible.
This year in April a budget of Rs 476.89 crore was declared for the development and improvement of the Mandis all around the city. The DAMB was responsible for passing the budget at a meeting at the Delhi Secretariat chaired by the Development Minister of NCT, Gopal Rai. Officials of the Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board and Agricultural Produce Market Committee also were a part of it.
Among the total amount of funds sanctioned approximately Rs 178.73 crore was alloted for APMC Azadpur for the financial year 2022-23. It was also declared that a number of CCTVs are to be installed at the Mandis to ensure the execution of the plans.
