Despite massive volumes of business being churned out of this IT hub, the place lacks basic amenities
By Richa Chakravarty
Monday, June 09, 2014: Recently, the US trade representative (USTR) listed Nehru Place as among the 30 most notorious IT markets in the world. Apart from being a haven for software piracy and a flourishing grey market, Nehru Place is one of the biggest commercial hubs of India and is the largest market for IT products in Asia.
Established in 1969, this business centre was named Kalkaji Complex and subsequently renamed Nehru Place in the 1980s, after India’s first prime minister (PM) Jawaharlal Nehru. Out of the 15 district centres in Delhi, Nehru Place is the biggest, with more than 1200 channel partners operating from here and facilitating business worth millions, every day.
With 102 buildings, Nehru Place houses nearly 20,500 offices. Despite such massive volumes of business being churned out of this IT hub, the place lacks basic amenities like adequate parking, sanitation, maintenance of emergency exit systems, etc.
Electronics Bazaar took a closer look at the problems faced by traders in Nehru Place. We surveyed the market and spoke to the All Delhi Computer Traders Association (ADCTA) president, Mahinder Aggarwal, on the issues that concern traders.
Limited parking area
Nehru Place currently has seven authorised parking areas along with the provision for underground parking, with the capacity to accommodate 471 cars, 672 cycles and 600 scooters. But this parking area was built in 1975. “Despite the fact that the number of offices and shops in Nehru Place has increased tremendously, the parking area has never been expanded to accommodate the increasing number of vehicles. Poor maintenance and lighting conditions in the parking area are another issue that concern the traders,” says Mahinder Aggarwal.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has its own parking area; however this is not sufficient for the needs of the traders. Most of the parking done here is illegal. In such a scenario, traders have to park their cars in illegal passages. Visitors and customers are the most affected as they do not get parking space in Nehru Place. “We have to park our vehicles away from the main market,” shares a visitor. “But with the connectivity of the Metro line to Nehru Place, travelling to this place has become easier, though parking is still a big problem.”
Illegal hawkers: The golden goose?
The most interesting aspect to Nehru Place is the long row of pavement vendors right in front of the showrooms. From pirated CDs of software and movies, to electronic gadgets, one can find everything on the pavement.
This is one of the biggest problems for the traders and channel partners occupying the showrooms and offices, who find it tough to compete with the throw-away prices that the hawkers offer for a pirated product. As per the court’s orders, only 114 hawkers can sit in Nehru Place (spread across various locations—outside the metro station, on the main pavement or at the bus stop). However, more than 700-800 hawkers can be found on the main pavement itself.
“Each hawker pays Rs 1000 per day to the police officer in-charge to conduct business on the pavement. For the government authorities, this is one of their biggest sources of revenue and who would like to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? On a single day, it is estimated that nearly Rs 0.1 million goes into the pockets of the authorities for illegally allowing pavement vendors to carry on their business from Nehru Place,” informs Mahinder Aggarwal. He further adds, “We, as an association, have made several complaints but no action has been taken; rather, the traders and associations’ members receive threatening calls and warnings to mind their own business.”
Inadequate security
Despite housing several buildings, the market complex has no proper security system. A sufficient number of CCTV cameras has not been installed and most of the traders complain that these cameras do not operate most of the time. The ongoing third phase of the DRMC has also created chaos at the market. Traders complain that due to the ongoing metro work, the cables of the security cameras often get cut. Also, the police officials assigned to the market are just not sufficient to handle any untoward activity. “There are hardly 8-10 police officers present in this market. Keeping in mind the huge size and requirements of this complex, we need more than 100-120 police personnel to ensure adequate security,” says a trader.
Sanitation and hygiene
This is another sore point for the traders at Nehru Place. Not only are there piles of garbage lying around in the complex but no maintenance has been done on the buildings for years. Most of the corridors do not have proper exits and are not well lit. Surprisingly, a big business centre like Nehru Place does not have the basic amenities of enough washrooms and water coolers. Though the big companies and offices have their own facilities, the traders do not have any such privileges. “The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) undertook the responsibility of cleaning and beautification of Nehru Place for two years, however, it has been 14 years since it began and in the name of cleaning, we have piles of garbage lying around. There are too few washrooms in this business complex to serve the number of people that Nehru Place holds. Sanitation and hygiene are other reasons why people prefer not to visit this market. Several times we have approached DDA to provide us land or space so that we can build washrooms or install water coolers, however our request seems to be falling on deaf ears,” complains Mahinder Aggarwal.
