An artist’s impression of Lake Mall which will open its doors in January 2009 and (above) reconstruction on in full swing. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

The dank decrepit building will give way to an aluminium-glass elevation billed to revolutionise the daily shopping experience of Lake Market from January 2009. The first civic market to undergo a makeover under a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme, the Lake Mall will house a somewhat curious joint family of a regular fish-and-vegetable market, branded biggies, swank shops, cafes and cineplex.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has taken up reconstruction of old markets as part of its urban renewal scheme. The next two municipal markets in the reconstruction line are Park Circus and College Street.

“I hope the project will help in dispelling apprehension among traders and political leaders in other civic markets regarding their redevelopment,” said mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya.

Reconstruction of the old bazaar will not only give the area a whole new look, but will also provide for a very different experience for both sellers and buyers. “Above all, it will allow more traders to operate from one place,” said municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

The Rs 100-crore reconstruction of Lake Market is being carried out jointly by Arun Plastics Private Limited, who won the global tender in 1997 and Venkatesh Foundation Private Limited, which later merged with Arun Plastics.

The G+ 7 mall will soon accommodate the existing 350 stall owners on its ground floor. According to joint municipal commissioner Sahidul Islam, who looks after the PPP schemes, “permanent resettlement of the stall owners will be complete by July”.

The old Lake Market on a three-bigha plot has given way to a 15-bigha shopping space through vertical escalation of floor space. Centrally air-conditioned (apart from the ground floor), the mall will have four lifts and escalators on each floor.

While the old market covered 42,000 sq ft, in the new one each of the eight floors will have 30,000 sq ft. There will also be a basement parking lot for 107 cars.

“It will be a fish-and-vegetable market topped with a mall. It will be a destination for both the middle class and upper income bracket households. It is a posh area and we are expecting business to grow by over 100 per cent at the new Lake Market. The CMC is also cooperating with us because it is their first market redevelopment scheme to take shape,” said Piyush Bhagat, the director of Venkatesh Foundation Private Limited, which is credited with developing the Silver Spring Arcade on EM Bypass.

The reconstruction of Lake Market is running late by five years. It was due to be completed by 2002. Five years have been spent in a legal battle after CMC terminated the agreement with Arun Plastics Private Limited. Though the tender for reconstruction was invited and reconstruction permission given to Arun Plastics during the tenure of the CPM-led municipal board in 1997, actual construction started only in 2003 when Venkatesh Foundation merged with Arun Plastics and started work during the Trinamul-BJP board tenure.

But all is not well despite the reconstruction and resettlement. Some traders fear that if the vendors on the pavements in front of the market are not removed, the shops in the mall will take a hit.

“Unless the CMC takes steps to remove the hawkers, our business will be in trouble. Shoppers will prefer buying from the hawkers on the pavements instead of coming inside,” said Pinto Banerjee, the president of Lake Bazaar Samyukta Byabsayee Samity.

Traders like Subrata Jana and Mantu Pramanik feel threatened by the hawkers outside but strangely not by retail giant Big Bazaar that will dominate the first and second floors of the mall.

“Big Bazaar will not be able to make a dent in our sales,” said Pramanik with confidence.

Shopper Aarti Chowdhury, a resident of Tollygunge who visits Lake Market daily, cannot wait for the mall to be fully operational. “It will be a novel experience to shop for vegetables and branded clothes all under one roof!”