Utter the words ‘vegetable mandi’ and the first images that come to one’s minds are that of a dirty, fly-infested place with people knocking into you from all directions; in short a place that’s high up on one’s list of places ‘not to visit’ in Delhi. However, this situation is about to change and we would soon have farmers and traders of vegetables and fruits selling their products from the air-conditioned comforts of their stalls in the Azadpur fruit and vegetable market of the city.

And this won’t just be restricted to Azadpur but other such markets of the city would also be provided with similar modern facilities within the next two years in a bid to give a new boost to the farm sector.

According to the Chief Minister of Delhi the plans are to completely remodel the Azadpur market and turn it into a mandi of International repute. In fact as part of this plan, a modern air-conditioned office complex having a total area of 6600 Sq. meters, constructed at a cost of Rs 10 crore and a modern air conditioned Kisan Bhawan with total covered area of 4000 sq. meters, constructed at a cost of Rs 7 crore, have already been inaugurated.

The office complex would have an auditorium with a sitting capacity of 200 people and display projector, conference room with a capacity of 60 persons, computer centres, spacious parking, rain-water harvesting and ultra modern communication system. The Kisan Bhawan would have 100 beds and provide accommodation for overnight stay of the farmers and growers who came to sell their produce from several states.

There were also plans to construct a modern cold storage to protect the farmers from distress selling of their produce at throwaway prices for fear of the produce being damaged.

Apart from providing computerization and e-commerce facilities, there are also plans for an integrated facility centre for sorting, grading, packaging and electronic auctioning for fruit and vegetables to be set-up at the Azadpur mandi.

The government has also announced for a new fruit market to be developed at Tikri Khanpur so as to decongest the present fruit and vegetable market at Azadpur.