The steel merchants of Kalamboli have urged the Government to overhaul the crumbling infrastructure at the 25-year-old market place, they informed the press at a conference on Monday. The Kalamboli market commands a monthly turnover of ₹1,000 crore.

The wholesale iron and steel market, which was shifted to Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai to decongest South Mumbai, is the biggest in Asia and is spread over 302 hectares.

The Kalamboli Steel Market Committee – representing the Darukhana Iron, Steel and Scrap Merchants Association (Disma), the Bombay Iron Merchants Association and the Steel Chamber of India – submitted a memorandum to Urvinder Pal Singh Madan, Commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, listing their demands.

The day-to-day functioning of the area is overseen by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Iron and Steel Market Committee, whose CEO resigned eight months ago.

Rajeev Khandelwal, a committee member, said the steel market is “worse than a graveyard” and lacks basic amenities. During the monsoon, flood waters in the market rise up to two-feet high, making loading and unloading of materials very difficult. The water logging also causes frequent power supply disturbances and puts lives in danger.

“The Committee is ready to undertake repair work of six service roads at the cost of ₹40 crore. The tendering process is complete but there are procedural delays as the administrative committee doesn’t have a CEO,” he said.

Traders are willing to carry out the necessary repair work and are ready to make monetary contribution towards this, Khandelwal, also Vice-President of Disma, said.

Ashok Kumar Garg, Vice-Chairman of the overseeing committee, wants the repairs to be completed as soon as possible. Otherwise, he says, if the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha election is held as expected before Diwali and the code of conduct kicks in two months prior to that, the present tenders would be rendered invalid by then.

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