Karwan Bazar move back on the agenda after 20 years

Bangla Press Desk:  Dhaka has been trying to move the wholesale produce trade out of Karwan Bazar for two decades.

Three alternative wholesale markets were built at Gabtoli, Mohakhali and Jatrabari. Governments changed. Deadlines came and went. The traders stayed where they were.

Now the plan is back.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Aug 29 directed the authorities to relocate Karwan Bazar’s kitchen market to Gabtoli as part of a wider effort to ease traffic congestion and reorganise transport and wholesale markets in the capital.

The immediate question is whether the city can finally complete a process that has been stalled for nearly 20 years.

Another is more basic: is Gabtoli actually ready to receive the market?

A visit there on Monday suggested otherwise.

A short distance from Gabtoli intersection, along the road leading to the embankment, stands the wholesale kitchen market built as one of Karwan Bazar’s alternatives.

Around noon, the site was being used to park Dhaka North City Corporation vehicles, excavators and dump trucks.

Parts of the market buildings were visibly deteriorating. Broken glass lay on the floor. Paint was peeling.

No wholesale traders had moved in. The site was largely deserted.

Even the entrance had acquired another use: an office had been set up there for the biennial election of the DNCC Transport Drivers and Workers-Employees Union.

Union leader Abdul Kadir questioned whether shifting Karwan Bazar’s wholesale trade there was practical.

“Look around yourself,” he said. “The buildings have become old. The glass is broken, the paint is coming off. It has become a parking station.”

He warned that moving the wholesale market there could simply shift the traffic problem.

“If Karwan Bazar’s wholesale market is brought here, congestion could actually get worse from Gabtoli intersection all the way to Dhaka Udyan.”

The other two alternatives present problems of their own.

The Mohakhali market building is being used as a DNCC hospital.

Some shops have been allocated at Jatrabari, but no wholesaler from Karwan Bazar has moved there.

The question, then, is not simply whether Karwan Bazar should move.

It is where its traders can realistically go.

Traders Want Workable Alternative

Businesses say they were not adequately consulted before the latest decision.

Their argument is straightforward. Removing the wholesale trade from Karwan Bazar is one thing; finding somewhere capable of accommodating its large trading community is another.

Abu Saleque, president of the Uttar Karwan Bazar Adarsha Fruit Traders’ Wholesale Owners Association, said some businesses with allocations at Jatrabari might choose to move there.

But Karwan Bazar has thousands of traders, he said, and they need a site large enough to operate together.

“The government says it will move us. But it does not have a specific plan,” he told bdnews24.com.

“If they sat down with the wholesalers and planned it, and created a large site outside Dhaka or on its outskirts, then everyone could move there.”

Saleque cited what he had seen during a visit to China, where, he said, governments had built large sheds for traders and allowed them to pay for the facilities in instalments.

A similar wholesale hub on the outskirts of Dhaka could win traders’ support, he argued.

He also disputes the idea that the wholesale market itself is solely responsible for Karwan Bazar’s chronic congestion.

Saleque blamed much of the problem on vehicles loading and unloading goods on the main road and on informal toll collection.

He argued that restricting unloading on key roads could significantly reduce congestion.

“There is some congestion, mostly at night,” he said. “The government can take some decisions. They could simply stop unloading on the main VIP road.”

He alleged that some people collect Tk 10 or Tk 20 from vans and other vehicles and allow them to stop on the road.

“If that is controlled, there will no longer be this level of congestion on the VIP road,” he said.

Firoz Alam, acting president of the Karwan Bazar Wholesale Kitchen Market Traders Association, offered an even starker description of Gabtoli.

The place where traders are being asked to move, he said, is now occupied by trucks, steel rods and cement.

“There are no people there.”

Traders’ associations estimate Karwan Bazar has between 1,200 and 1,500 wholesalers, organised around 14 business groups.

20-year Relocation Plan

The effort to move Karwan Bazar dates back to October 2006.

During the BNP-led coalition government, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved a project called “Construction of Three Wholesale Kitchen Markets in Dhaka City”.

Its initial cost was Tk 2.06 billion. The aim was to shift Karwan Bazar’s wholesale trade to Gabtoli, Mohakhali, and Jatrabari. The project was later extended and its cost increased.

According to the development project proposal, 2,939 shops of around 120 to 130 square feet were built across the three markets.

The relocation plan included 895 traders at Jatrabari, 549 at Gabtoli, and 360 at Mohakhali.

The original target was to move Karwan Bazar by 2010. That did not happen.

Between 2013 and 2015, authorities again sought to complete the alternative markets and relocate traders.

That effort also failed.

After three extensions, construction was completed in June 2017, with the cost rising to about Tk 3.5 billion, according to media reports cited in the original report.

Plans were again made that year to move a large portion of the market, and eventually the whole operation, within fixed deadlines.

Those targets were also missed.

DNCC tried again in 2023, focusing on Gabtoli and Jatrabari.

In March 2024, then mayor Atiqul Islam announced that 176 permanent shops operating from unsafe buildings in Karwan Bazar would be moved to Gabtoli after Eid.

DNCC also said its regional office would be relocated to allow the process to begin.

Yet, Karwan Bazar remained where it was.

The military-controlled caretaker government, the Awami League’s 15 and a half years in power and the subsequent Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration all came and went after the original 2006 plan.

The wholesale market did not move.

Are the Alternative Markets Ready?

Karwan Bazar traders have long argued that the replacement markets do not match the way their businesses work.

Many wholesale shops in Karwan Bazar operate from single-storey buildings or tin-roofed structures. Traders say moving goods in and out of multi-storey buildings would be much more difficult.

They are also concerned that buyers may simply refuse to follow them to the new locations.

A DNCC official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that Gabtoli is far from ready.

“The city corporation now parks vehicles at the Gabtoli market, and much of the site is almost abandoned,” the official said. “No shop has moved there.”

Jatrabari has problems too.

The official said the facilities there have not been maintained or managed regularly. Some people may be occupying spaces locally, but those are not valid allocations.

Mohakhali presents a different problem.

The market building was used as a dedicated hospital during the Covid pandemic, bringing plans to allocate its shops to a halt.

The latest government push has nevertheless begun.

On Jun 17, after the new BNP government took office, DNCC Administrator Safiqul Islam Khan Milton met representatives of Karwan Bazar businesses.

Traders opposed relocation at the meeting.

Business representative Saifur Rahman Chowdhury instead proposed constructing a modern multi-storey wholesale market and shopping complex at the existing Karwan Bazar site.

About a month and a half later came the prime minister’s relocation directive.

DNCC Chief Revenue Officer Muhammad Habibul Alam said the corporation has since been using loudspeakers to tell traders about the relocation.

“We were instructed to make announcements,” he said. “We have been doing that at intervals and working to create awareness among traders about leaving Karwan Bazar.”

The announcements are being made two or three days a week and will continue for some time, he said.

But the city corporation itself still lacks answers on what comes next.

Asked about allocations at the three alternative markets, Habibul said only Jatrabari had received allocations. The others had not.

And when asked what arrangements would be made for Karwan Bazar’s traders, his response echoed the central uncertainty around the entire move.

“We have not yet received any policy-level direction on what arrangements will be made for Karwan Bazar traders,” he said.

“If we receive such instructions from the ministry, we will act accordingly. So far, no such instruction has come from the ministry.”

Traders Resist Another Relocation Push

Karwan Bazar City Corporation Market traders responded on Aug 31 with a joint press conference protesting both reports of the prime minister’s relocation directive and the DNCC’s loudspeaker campaign.

They demanded permanent shops and proper rehabilitation at Karwan Bazar itself.

A sudden announcement that the market would be emptied had affected both ordinary customers and long-established traders, they said.

Their proposal is to preserve the existing business environment by redeveloping Karwan Bazar and bringing different types of markets together into a single central market at the current site.

Another DNCC official said moving the traders would be difficult without a major political decision.

The official recalled that some traders were once supposed to be relocated to Mohakhali.

But after the building became a Covid-dedicated hospital, the shops were closed and money paid as deposits or upfront fees was returned.

The Mohakhali plan did not progress.

The DNCC had also prepared several times to move traders to Jatrabari.

Its regional office was even shifted from the site so the structure could be demolished and the next stage of development could begin.

Again, nothing happened.

“The structures are all there, but there has been no update on the matter in the past two years,” the official said.

There were also disputes over whether traders should receive ground-floor or upper-floor space at Jatrabari, the official said.

In practice, no Karwan Bazar trader physically moved a shop to either Jatrabari or Gabtoli.

“The matter appears to have gone only as far as allocation,” the official said.

DNCC Chief Urban Planner SM Shafiqur Rahman said moving the wholesale trade to the planned new markets could improve traffic and waste management in central Dhaka.

But Karwan Bazar is too important for a rushed solution, he said.

Any decision should be based on a long-term plan drawn up with all relevant stakeholders.

Risky Market Buildings

There is another reason the issue cannot simply be left unresolved: some of Karwan Bazar’s existing buildings have long been considered unsafe.

A 2013 report by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) identified 20 of the 43 DNCC markets as risky.

Among them were Karwan Bazar Market No 1, Market No 2, the temporary kitchen market and the wholesale produce market building, which were classified as highly vulnerable.

The DNCC declared the markets abandoned on Apr 1, 2019. But businesses continue to operate from them.

The DNCC Chief Engineer Brigadier General Syed Rakibul Hasan said the relocation plan had existed for years, but formal action had yet to begin because the process depended heavily on Karwan Bazar traders.

He also defended the assessment of the buildings as unsafe. “The existing buildings at Karwan Bazar are risky,” he said.

“They were declared so after inspections by proper committees and institutions such as the engineering department, BUET and MIST. We did not declare them risky on our own.”

Nearly 20 years after the relocation project was approved, Dhaka is therefore back at the same basic crossroads.

The government wants the wholesale market out of Karwan Bazar. Traders want a credible place to go. Or redevelopment where they already are.

Gabtoli exists but lies largely unused. Mohakhali has another purpose. Jatrabari has allocations but no Karwan Bazar wholesalers.

The order to move has been given, but the destination, however, is still far less certain.