Hyderabad Metro Retail Plaza awaits occupants

Hyderabad: Vegetable vendors are all eager and waiting to move in to the Retail Plaza built for them by the Hyderabad Metro Rail authorities at Bharat Nagar Metro station. The plaza has 115 shutter-less shops exclusively for vegetable vendors carrying out business from pavements. Construction on the plaza was completed about three months ago, and cost an estimated Rs 1.5 crore.

Negotiations on rent for the retail stalls have been going on for long between the vendors and the Metro Rail authorities. However, while there are 129 vegetable vendors who sell on footpath, there are only 115 stalls. One HMR official said the process of allotment of stalls to the vegetable vendors at the plaza was in progress.

G. Ramachander, a vendor who has been selling vegetables at the market for about 15years, said, “We have filled out the required forms and submitted them to the authorities. Now, it is up to Metro officials to take a decision on allotments. Since there are more vendors than the stalls, it looks like the process is going to get delayed.” Vendors are also concerned about the rates of the rent in the Retail Plaza. 

G. Penta Reddy, who’s been selling onions at Bharatnagar market yard for decades, said, “The authorities indicated that the rent would in the range of Rs 5,000-Rs 3,000. We hardly make much to be able to pay that sort of rent. And there has been no surge in business even in the 10 days since the opening of Metro. It is difficult to afford high rents.” While a majority of vendors said the rent should be between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500, HMR officials declined to announce any figure. HMR officials said that they had not decided on the rent amount, though the process of verification of vendors was on.