Muhammad Luqman

 Far from the maddening crowds of Lahore city, the Punjab government has planned to develop Pakistan’s first-ever state-of-the-art wholesale fruit and vegetable market on the northern fringe of the metropolis.

“We are relocating Lahore’s biggest Badami Bagh Vegetable and   Fruit Market to the new venue with all the world-class infrastructure,” said Director General of Punjab Agriculture Marketing Regulatory Authority (PAMRA) Tariq Ali Basra while talking to WealthPK.

The Badami Bagh market was built in 1969 over an area of only 205 kanals. It is the biggest vegetable and fruit market in the Punjab province and the second biggest in the country after the one in Karachi. But over the years, the areas surrounding the market have become densely populated, making the movement of trucks in and out of the vegetable market a difficult task.

PAMRA chief said that the new premises given the name of Naimat Nagar Fruit and Vegetable Market is being developed over an area of 300 acres on Kala Khatai Road, as a collaboration between PAMRA and Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA). The new market will have access to traffic from all sides. It is about 1.5 kilometres from the Kala Khatai Interchange on Lahore-Sialkot Motorway (M-11), placing it close to Lahore Ring Road, the Grand Trunk Road (GT Road) and M-2 Motorway, while offering convenient access to the heart of Lahore.

The Naimat Nagar Market will provide a variety of shop and space sizes tailored to the needs of commission agents and wholesalers in the agriculture sector. The government is offering a special 15% discount on shop prices exclusively to Badami Bagh commission agents or Arhat licence holders registered before 2018.

Mr Basra said that the structured design of the market, with clearly demarcated zones for trading, storage, and logistics, would ensure seamless operations. “Streamlined processes, including faster loading and unloading, would contribute to minimising delays and improving the experience for vendors and buyers alike.” Shifting of Lahore’s biggest vegetable and fruit market to some peripheral areas is not a new idea. In 2019, a fruit and vegetable exchange was planned at Lakhodair over a sprawling area of 1,045 kanals. But this project never materialised.

Basra claimed that the Naimat Nagar Fruit and Vegetable Market is not just a trading hub but a visionary project aimed at transforming the agricultural landscape of Punjab. He said that the experience of developing an internationally competitive vegetable hub, if proved a success, would be replicated in other big cities of the Punjab like Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan and Gujranwala.

Despite Punjab government’s claims regarding the futuristic features of the project, the traders at the Badami Bagh Fruit and Vegetable Market have certain reservations. In their eyes, it would not be easy for them and buyers to benefit from a facility located far from the centre of the Lahore city.

“The Naimat Nagar Fruit and Vegetable Market is being developed in Sheikhupura district, not in Lahore. So, the shifting of market to a far-far area is not acceptable to most traders,” General Secretary of Badami Bagh Market Saddam Athar Khan said while talking to WealthPK.

He said that the government should execute the project after taking all the stakeholders into confidence; otherwise, the shifting of the market might prove only a failure. However, the Laborites have generally welcomed the government’s decision of shifting the market to the outskirts of Lahore, hoping that they would not face traffic jams and other related problems anymore while travelling to and from the new fruit and vegetable market.

Credit: INP-WealthPk