After Patuli floating market, city to witness night market on EM Bypass from Aug 14

Kolkata: Come August 14, the city for the first time will witness a night market at Kalikapur on EM Bypass.

After the floating market in Patuli, this night market will be another feather in the cap of the city.

"There will be around 75 stalls in the night market stretching from the area near a private hospital in Kasba on EM Bypass up to Kalikapur. It will remain open from August 14 to August 17 (four days) and on Fridays and Saturdays of every week.

"The major attraction of the night market will be the handicrafts items from different parts of the states and variety of gift shops apart from grocery items and vegetables," a senior official of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), which is supervising the entire project, said.

On the first four days, there will be cultural performances for entertainment purposes.

There will be readymade food stalls with dinner arrangements for people at the place.

The entire idea of the night market was floated by the general secretary of National Hawkers Federation (NHF) Shaktiman Ghosh. Such markets are very popular in places like Malaysia, Hongkong and Singapore.

The timing of the market is still being worked out in consultation with the hawkers. "We may keep it open from 10 pm in the night till 3 in the wee hours or from 6 in the evening till 1 am at night. Both the options will be experimented with," a leader of NHF said.

"We are presently working on the illumination of the market and are planning to deck it up with high-mast LED lights. The proposal has been forwarded to the state Finance department," the KMDA

official said.

In July, the KMDA has already handed over keys to as many as 265 stall owners from the Ruby crossing till Patuli for the hawkers, who had been evicted two years ago, when the government decided to expand the width of Bypass that connects Ultadanga to Garia.

Among these 265 stalls, those who want to keep their shops open during the running of the night market, can do so.

The floating market in Patuli, located a few kilometers away from the place, which was inaugurated last year, has become quite popular and KMDA is overhauling it further.

The market has 228 sellers sitting on 114 boats selling everything ranging from fish, chicken, mutton eggs, vegetables, fruits and flowers, grocery and other

miscellaneous items.