Delhi govt plans to develop Gandhi Nagar market as 'grand garment hub'

The Delhi government has planned to develop the textile market in Gandhi Nagar as a ''grand garment hub'' and it will be re-branded and repositioned to also generate more jobs in the next five years.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday presented a Rs 75,800-crore budget in the Assembly for the financial year 2022-23, and praised the Gandhi Nagar market, dubbed as the ''Asia's largest ready-made garment market''.

''Delhi markets are not only the backbone of our economy, but also the reason for our respect. One such market in Delhi is the readymade garment and textile market of Gandhi Nagar. The daily turnover of this market is more than Rs 100 crore and it generates one lakh direct and 2-3 lakh indirect employment opportunities,'' he said.

The Delhi government plans to develop this market in Gandhinagar as ''a grand garment hub'' so that if people use some garments from here, they could say it with pride that “this is ready-made in Delhi”, the minister said.

''This requires legal recognition, infrastructure redevelopment, construction of new service centres and re-branding, marketing and re-positioning of Gandhi Nagar,'' he added.

This programme is expected to create more than 40,000 new employment opportunities in the next five years, the deputy chief minister said.

In his speech, he also said the city government will provide an online platform, named ''Delhi Bazaar'', for local merchants to join it and sell online.

''Promoting 'Go Local', we will set up a 'Delhi Bazaar' that will function as a virtual store 24x7. This arrangement will be done for our local traders at 'Zero Setup Cost' i.e. 'Zero Expense','' he said.

A big attraction of the Delhi Bazaar will be that customers sitting in any corner of the world will be able to take a ''virtual tour'' of the iconic markets of Delhi such as Chandni Chowk, Sarojini Nagar and Karol Bagh, Sisodia said in his budget address.

This will help local merchants to reach out to all types of customers. ''I propose an outlay of Rs 20 crore for this scheme, which is expected to benefit 10 lakh specific vendors in Delhi,'' he added.

(With PTI inputs)

Published on: Saturday, March 26, 2022, 04:49 PM IST