Hyderabad: Municipal administration and urban development minister, K.T. Rama Rao on Monday visited Moazzam Jahi Market (MJ Market) as the Telangana government is planning to renovate the monument. He announced that the renovation works will be taken up with an estimated cost of Rs10 crore.
He was accompanied by municipal administration and urban development, principal secretary, Arvind Kumar and other senior officials. The restoration would ensure setting up antique shops and new eateries while public toilets would be built beside the 83-year-old heritage structure. The defunct clock tower will be fixed and heritage lightings, shop sign boards, flexes, advertisement boards, encroachments will be removed to reveal the structure.
Apart from this, the seepage from the roof will be fixed and drainage overflow issue would also be addressed. The main purpose of establishing the market area back in 1935 was to create a space for vegetable and fruit vendors in the city. Even today, third and fourth generations of people who had set up the first shops in the famous granite building are managing the old stores.
Unfortunately, today, drainage water overflows in the inner circle of the building and flexes and advertisement boards are nailed to the old walls. Also, with garbage being dumped in and around the place, the heritage structure becomes quite inaccessible to the public. While some of them feared that they might be asked to vacate the shops for restoration works, Arvind Kumar assured that existing leaseholders would not be displaced. The shops which are not used would be taken over to establish antique shops and eateries.
