Following seven years of inaction, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has begun renovating Goregaon’s Topiwala Market, which is operated by the local body. By March 2027, BMC hopes to have all of the work finished. BMC Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani ordered officials to speed up construction and finish the first two floors, which are expected to hold 206 marketers, in the first phase after an inspection on Thursday. This will allow vendors to begin using the space for their daily operations as soon as possible.
The old building, which housed a civic market and a theatre, was demolished in 2018 to make way for BMC’s ambitious project to redevelop it into a 16-story establishment in Goregaon. It was named after Anant Shivaji Desai, who earned the nickname “Topiwala” due to his trade in topis (caps).
According to senior BMC officials, the renovation work had already started in 2019, but the COVID-19 outbreak caused a hitch in the process. The civic organisation released new tenders for the project last year, and construction will begin in October 2024.
According to officials, the 16-story building, estimated to cost Rs. 172 crore, will include parking areas, an auditorium with 800 seats, and residential floors. Other stories will serve as parking lots, auditoriums, etc., while the ground and first floors will serve the market, which will have 206 stores, with 112 on the ground floor and 94 on the first.
The sellers of the former market had complained about the project’s years-long delays and had called for more room in the newly renovated market. Senior officials claim that the raft foundation construction has been finished thus far.
Source: The Indian Express