Shops housed in KR Market’s heritage building have been given their eviction notice. We’ve got workers panicking on one side while the other calls for development.
Story so far: For years now, the Krishna Rajendra (KR) market has been riddled with poor maintenance and faulty waste management. Now, as a part of the Smart City project, the red heritage building is getting renovated and the shop owners have been asked to leave.
- The meat market traders, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and the Institute of Urban Designers India (IUDI) are proposing a design plan for the renovation.
- Some of the shop owners have been conducting business there for generations. They are the ones who are strongly opposing this renovation.
Looking back: The KR Market was built back in 1921, in collaboration with the Bangalore City Municipality and the Mysore Kingdom – specifically, during the rule of Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar. At first, it was a spot where traders would gather naturally. The Maharaja of Mysore simply thought of streamlining that gathering.
(Image credits: Pp391, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
