The archway that leads into Mandi Mir Alam market has an invocation in Arabic and no date of establishment of the market. A protective iron scaffolding has been erected to keep the arch in its place at a cost of ₹14 lakh. “This market was the biggest wholesale market in the city. It had five arches, now only one exists. Big vehicles cannot come inside (just like in the case of Monda Market). The Rythu Bazaars established during N. Chandrababu Naidu’s regime and smaller markets have destroyed the importance of this market. Now, this is just a small retail market,” says Shaikh Faqruddin, a vegetable commission agent, from his 70-year-old shop. He dates the market to 1788-89 when Mir Alam Bahadur was a trusted aide of Nizam Ali Khan during the Carnatic Wars.
The loss of importance of these big vegetable market has proved a boon for citizens of Hyderabad as weekend pop-up markets are the norm in most localities of the city. Narrow streets in densely populated residential areas suddenly turn into vegetable markets with hawkers setting up temporary shops right down to raised platforms and battery-powered LED lamps. Tarnaka, Hyderguda, Puppalguda, Nalanda Nagar, Shaikpet Nala and most other residential areas see these temporary weekend markets where families walk in with wheeled bags and cart the vegetables home.
“It is part of our Sunday routine. Many people of our apartment complex do the same; we go for shopping at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m., get fresh vegetables and are back within an hour with shopping done for the week. The best part is we don’t have to take out our vehicle for that,” says Sharmila Naidu, who lives in an apartment block in Nalanda Nagar. One family’s comfort factor is another businessman’s pain.
Inside the Gudimalkapur Market, shopping is a breeze as people ride their bikes inside, pick up their vegetables and zip away. “There are so many smaller markets that people don’t have to come here. Only if a market is crowded, there will be good business. When there is no crowding, you can assume business is failing,” says Chandrasekhar, a commission agent at the Gudimalkapur Market.
Ironically, Gudimalkapur vegetable market was a solution for crowding of the older Sabzi Mandi in Karwan area. “This market has now shrunk to a small streetside vegetable market. Many of the shop owners have sold them off and houses have come up in the area,” says Narayan Chari who has been running a grocery store for the past 40 years in the area.
Hunting ground for retailers
Sprawled over 23 acres and five guntas is the Dr B. R. Ambedkar Vegetable Market, better known as Bowenpally Market. “Most of the wholesale traders from Monda Market and other markets moved here when this was established in 2002. Every day, about 1,000 lorries bring vegetables from across the country to here,” informs T.N. Sreedhar Srinivas, chairman of the Market Committee.
It is this market that sends vegetables to all other markets in city and is the hunting ground for retailers trying to make a killing with price differential. “Carrots from Gujarat, onions from Maharashtra, tomatoes from Chittoor and potatoes from Madhya Pradesh are brought here and then dispersed across the region,” informs Mr. Srinivas.
The Bowenpally Market is the only one in the city which has a cold-storage warehouse. “We are working on a composting facility that will take care of 10 tonnes of organic waste generated here,” he says.
