Shutters still down in many shops at Gandhi Market in Oddanchatram

In May 2025, Chief Minister M. K. Stalin inaugurated the Gandhi Market commercial complex in Oddanchatram built at a cost of ₹21.25 crore under the Kalaignar Urban Development Scheme. The revamped market was to have a host of facilities, such as hotels, parking areas, banks, ATMs, restrooms, even rooms for farmers to stay in.

Yet today, most of the shops remain closed.

A few retail vendors, who have taken shops on lease, say that work is still in progress. In the old dilapidated buildings that fronts the new complex, a TASMAC shop still functions.

A few years ago, the Gandhi Market, located right across the Oddanchatram bus stand, served as a major hub, with almost 1,000 tonnes of vegetables being transported daily to various places within Tamil Nadu and other States too.

Located in a densely populated place, S. Senthil, a trader, said that merchants were finding it difficult to access it as the road leading to the market from the Palani road was narrow. The problem began to aggravate, and the area began witnessing traffic jams due to lorries coming in to pick up the produce and buses entering and exiting the bus stand.

So, when the proposal was made to renovate the vegetable market, the traders and agents, anticipating that they would be asked to shift, came together and formed a Oddanchatram Gandhi Market Vegetable Commission Agent Owners Welfare Society. In 2022, 17 acres of land was bought adjacent to the four-lane Dharapuram road. Now, more than 150 shops have been built in the complex and most of the traders have shifted there, says Mr. Senthil.

“Access to the road there is seamless, there is ample parking facility for huge containers and there are no traffic issues,” he points out.

At the revamped market within Oddanchatram, most of the empty space has now turned into a private parking lot. Will the revamped market have takers?

A. Venkatesh, a vendor, says it’s difficult as the market has been built on two levels. “It is not feasible to carry the produce up and down. There are no elevators or lifts for transporting the commodities. Even customers will prefer to buy from shops at the ground-level,” he points out. To have an integrated market complex within the city limits, one also needs adequate parking facilities. If an underground parking facility had been created along with a designated space for waste management, then this revamped market would have some takers, says Mr. Venkatesh.

An official from the district administration admits that it is a perplexing situation. “Earlier, we had a tough time convincing these wholesale traders to move to a different location so that this market under the municipal limits could be renovated. Now, that we have finished work, the agents and traders who have now moved to a private space are not willing to come here though we are ready to offer the shops for a very low rent. Retailers who are operating from here feel that customer footfall has reduced. Efforts are being taken by the marketing department to engage the local public and also the local vendors to utilise the space,” he added.