Delhi: Greater Kailash
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Built: Post-1950
The Times of India, Jul 05 2015
GK-1 was developed soon after Independence to meet the growing demand for houses from Punjabis and the refugees from Pakistan. DLF sold the 2,700 plots in the colony in the 1950s for Rs 16 per square yard but construction didn't start till the 1960s. In the 60 years since, the price of land has increased to Rs 5 lakh-Rs 7 lakh per sq yard
Market
The Times of India, Jul 05 2015
Risha Chitlangia & Richi Verma
Big brands and basics, all in one place
M-block was planned on the lines of Khan Market with 73 residential-cum-commercial plots but it started out quietly and slowly with just a handful of daily needs stores: Prince Paan, New Empire Store, Morning Store, Bengali Sweets, Laxmi Store and Mahindra Store.
There were houses on the market's first floor for the families of shopkeepers. Om Prakash Aggarwal's father and uncles bought their plot in 1972 and started a franchise store of Snowhite Drycleaners. “In those days, only rich people got their clothes drycleaned. As it was a rich people's colony , we had a large clientele,“ says Aggarwal, who has now rented out a portion of his property . Aggarwal wasn't the only one to scale down his business. As big brands made a beeline for the market in the 1980s, pushing up rents, many of the low-margin and daily needs stores sold out or shrank their footprint for the new entrants. In its heyday , the M-block market housed a large number of designer labels. Rents rose to several lakh rupees a month, and the original owners chose to live the good life on rental income.Although most big labels have now moved to the malls, rents in M-block still range from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh a month.
Not everyone went with the flow, though. Tejinder Singh Arora, owner of Mahindra Store, still sits at his counter every day. It used to be a shoe shop with a flour mill in the backyard. Now, Arora sells crockery and appliances.
Ajay Goel's Bengal Sweets has shrunk with space for just three tables, but its barfi and gulab jamun remain popular. Old-timers still prefer it to the fancy restaurants. “We rented the shop in 1965 and bought it two years later. My father was very attached to this place and we had many good years before business dipped. Today , our main income is from rent but we remain in the sweets business for sentimental reasons,“ says Goel.
Rents peaked in the mid-90s and then started declining as the mall-craze swept Delhi and NCR.“With neither parking nor other basic facilities here, it became difficult to do business,“ says D K Mehra, chairman of M-block Market Association. “In the past few years, the pattari market (hawkers) has thrived. Today , it is mainly a pattari bazaar. Despite repeated complaints, the municipal corporation has not placed checks on hawkers. There's no plan to solve the parking problem. A few hundred metres away , Nblock market has had a better run.It was developed as a commercial district with 18 plots in the 1970s, and for the next 20-odd years had only grocery stores, some banks and an ice cream parlour.
At the start of the retail boom in the mid-90s, some major retailers and high-profile restaurants set up shop in N-block. By 2002, the market had become a onestop destination for high-profile customers. Manish Gupta's family bought a plot in 1967 and ran a grocery for almost 30 years before starting a leather goods showroom. “Today , N-block is entirely a home decor and cotton retail market. In the evenings, most cus tomers come to the high-profile restaurants,“ he says.
Space costs Rs 1,000 sq yard per month in N-block, while in M-block the rentals are around Rs 700 sq yard. “That's because we cater to an elite, rich clientele and serious buyers,“ adds Gupta who is president of the trader association in N-block.
