Capital's Karwan Bazar is known as the largest wholesale kitchen market. Crowd gathers in Karwanbazar from early in the morning. Vendors from different areas of the capital arrive here to buy various essential products including poultry, fish, vegetables, etc. Along with that, retail buyers also come.
Raw materials is also sold on the road for a long time. There are many important public, private offices, banks and media offices in this area. The waste generated from the raw material of the area spreads bad smell and become a breeding ground for various insects, flies, and mosquitoes.
The street vendors and Illegally-parked vehicles keep more than half of the wide roads occupied.The traffic congestion worsens mostly in the morning, when the offices starts and people flock to the market to buy.
Although the kitchen market is meant to close at 7:00AM, it actually closes at 10:00AM. Crowd of buyers and sellers can be seen in the market till 10 am. It causes traffic jam. Pedestrians and office goers need to jostle to reach their destination.
Heaps of garbage dumped along the roads for a long time pollute the environment. A little rain makes the situation more harder.
To manage the majority of the waste, several cleaners of the city corporation remove garbage from the roads of the kitchen market daily. "We finish cleaning up the garbage as soon as the office starts", says Golapi, a cleaner of the city corporation.
Commuters in the area are upset over the matter."It has become difficult to walk as the garbage dumped on the road. The road has been blocked by vegetable vendors and leaves no space for pedestrian to walk. The trash has become an eyesore and generates a foul smell. A traffic jam is being created for the waste of the market. Especially when it rains, the roads become impassable," said Rumana Ahmed who works in a TV channel in Karwan Bazar.
These piles of garbage are dumped in Savar's Amin Bazaar by truck. Many initiatives have been taken to relocate the kitchen market and other shops of Kawran Bazar. But it has not seen the light of day in the end, due to the objections of the traders.
Dhaka North City Corporation has four markets in Kawran Bazar. The markets are kitchen market, building number 1 market, building number 2 market and raw material market. There are more than 1500 shops in the markets. According to the new plan, raw markets and shops will be relocated within a year before the national elections in January 2024.
The wholesale market of Karwan Bazar alone generate 100 tonnes of garbage daily, which are disposed of at the landfill near Amin Bazar in Savar, as stated by the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Zone-5 office.
"We plan to relocate the wholesale kitchen market of Karwan Bazar to Gabtoli and Sayedabad, said Md Atiqul Islam, Mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).
"A new economic and commercial center of international standards will be established here", added Mayor.
