With the national lockdown entering its fourth phase, more relaxations are welcomed by the civic bodies across states to ease the public life although the coronavirus pandemic continues to threaten on the other side.
Flight and train services along with the buses and cars are set to roll on in most parts of the country. As most of the shops and markets are opened in Karnataka, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is considering opening the historic KR Market soon.
KR Market to be opened soon
KR Market (Krishna Rajendra Market), also known as City Market, is the largest wholesale market dealing with all commodities in Bengaluru. One of the largest flower markets in Asia, the KR Market is prone to large crowds of people across the day.
Hence, the opening of the market can pose a real threat to the general public as well as the officials because in a very similar scenario in Chennai, the Koyembedu market has been the major hotspot and source of a huge cluster of Covid patients.
According to BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar, "We are working on safety guidelines before we open the KR Market. We will only be permitting licensed shops, inside the market building, to operate."
Moreover, for the bigger task of keeping the roadside vendors away, the officials have decided to deploy around 30 marshals to man the KR market premises as well as the police force to help it out.
Although the High Court had directed the market vendors to shut down the sales in November, most of the vendors had resumed doing business on the streets.
"Luckily, the early closure of KR market proved beneficial or it would have become an epicentre of infection. The reopening of the market is also a big challenge and to ensure social distancing will be a Herculean task," said an official.
Most importantly, the officials therefore will have to create acute awareness programs to educate all the stakeholders to act responsibly.
As thousands of people flock into the market every hour, all possible ways to minimise contacts between the persons should be strictly maintained. Maybe the BBMP should take lessons from the Chennai corporation's management of the virus outbreak in Koyambedu market.
