Bhubaneswar, May 5: The Sundarpada 'ghost' market that has been lying abandoned since 1999 is all set to get a makeover.

Vice-chairman of Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) Krishan Kumar said: "Officials of public works department need land from the front portion of the market for a flyover. Nearly 10 shops will have to be demolished for the purpose. The remaining portion will be inspected by senior engineers and if need be the entire market will be razed."

Niraj Kumar Patnaik, assistant engineer (division I) of the development authority, said: "There is a plan to construct a two-storeyed building in the remaining portion of the land after 0.73 acres is taken away for flyover construction. The approach road of the flyover from Bhimatangi-end will be constructed here."

Inaugurated in September 1999 just before the supercyclone hit the state on October 29, the market never really started functioning. It had space for 138 shops with shutters and 288 pindis (open platforms). While the shops with shutters were allotted to grocers and other commodity traders, the pindis were meant for vegetable, fish, chicken and mutton sellers.

However, faulty allotment and the supercyclone played spoilsport leading the market to be left abandoned. It turned into a 'ghost' market with only a small portion of it being used by local vegetable vendors and non-vegetarian item sellers.

Seikh Nazrullah, a chicken vendor at Sundarpada haat, said: "The market was quite huge, but faulty allotment coupled with the supercyclone took a toll on it and it never started functioning. Later, with the structures lying abandoned, the market became a ghost site."

A senior BDA engineer said: "The chief engineer of the development authority and the works department officials will inspect the site and submit their report regarding the status and the strength of the buildings."

Pitambar Parida, a resident of Pokhariput, who goes to the Sundarpada haat almost every day, said: "The renovation plan of the market is an interesting development as the entire area has been lying abandoned for years. The site is extremely dirty with garbage piling up making it a eyesore for people passing by the area."

In the past, the officials of the Airports Authority of India had raised objections over the sale of meat, chicken and fish on open platforms as these were polluting the atmosphere and were also posing threat to the flight path as they attract birds.