RAWALPINDI: Work on a plan to shift the wholesale market from Raja Bazaar to outside the city areas hangs in the balance, after the provincial government did not allocate funding for the project in its annual development programme.

The Punjab government has asked local leaders to put forward proposals to shift the wholesale market outside Rawalpindi city while consulting with traders and other stakeholders.

The local administration has formed a committee of traders and local PML-N leaders to select a site and help the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) make the PC-1.

A senior local administration official told Dawn the committee has selected a site for the wholesale market, in Channi Sher Alam near Rawat, where 3,000 kanals have been identified in this regard.

Two sites were initially identified, one on Chak Beli Khan Road in Rawat and the other in Channi Sher Alam. The traders’ community were of the view that the latter would be more suitable, as the ring road project, which is supposed to start at this point, would help boost business.

He said traders were reluctant to be part of a committee to collect investments from traders to purchase the land in case of a change in government, and demanded that the government form a body itself.

Therefore the government asked the RDA to start working on the project while consulting with traders and local PML-N leaders, so that the wholesale market can be shifted before the general election.

However, the provincial government did not include the project in its annual development programme and no funding has been allocated for its feasibility study. Due to this, the official said, local leaders refused to work on the project further.

The official said moving go-downs and the wholesale market outside the city would end the mess of heavy vehicle traffic in Raja Bazaar. Currently, go-downs are located in Raja Bazaar and trade for Azad Kashmir and the northern areas is conducted from there.

Wholesale traders want the government to start working and legislate to form a committee or authority that will look after the affairs of the move, so that investors can invest in the project without the fear of losses.

Wholesale Traders Association President Raja Shamoon Kiani told Dawn that the traders want to leave the city areas because it was not possible for traders to bring heavy vehicles into the city to load and unload them during the day, and have to instead hire small trucks and vehicles for loading, as well as extra staff, which is expensive.

He said after the completion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, trade from Rawalpindi to Azad Kashmir, the northern areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would increase and traffic congestion in the downtown area would worsen.

Mr Kiani said the traders had informed the local administration of their chosen location for the new wholesale market, but the administration had not initiated work in this regard. He said local PML-N leaders were busy with political issues and had failed to resolve the problem so far.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2017