PUDUCHERRY: The beach precinct is all set to undergo a sea of change with a craft bazaar modeled on the Dilli haat soon to become a reality. Drawing inspirations from historic city centres in India and Europe where pedestrians have the priority, it has been planned to be a city centre where one could spend hours in beautiful surroundings of a park or on the beach promenade enjoying the sea and also visit the crafts bazaar of activity.The revitalisation of Bharathi Park is already over, while the beach beautification programme is currently underway. The construction of the crafts bazaar and renovation of Gandhi tidal has been taken up under destination development scheme by availing of Rs 2.67 crore from Ministry of Tourism.The crafts bazaar, coming up on both sides of the Nehru statue, has been inspired by the oriental bazaar that existed in the corner of Romain Rolland Street and Saint Laurent Street and was pulled down in 1990 for construction of municipal offices. The crafts bazaar has been designed in the same French style with arches and in white granite, separated by a small open air corridor presenting a beautiful look. The basic idea is to make it into shoppers paradise for handicrafts and handlooms items. The shops with arches have no doors and have been planned in such a way that there are 28 shops on the southern side and 24 on the northern side of Nehru statue. The shops on the southern side are ready, while construction on the northern side is awaiting the shifting of a transformer. The basic idea of setting up this crafts bazaar was to promote the Indian handicrafts industry. Craftsmen from different corners of India could come over here to showcase their products. The shops and stalls are allotted to the sellers for a specified rate and time and is then rotated so that other sellers get an opportunity to exhibit and sell their products. This would give Puducherry artisans an opportunity to interact with other crafts persons. It was conceived during the Asia Urbs project on heritage conservation, which is becoming a reality, said Ajit Koujalgi, co-convenor INTACH, coordinators of the project being implemented by the Department of Tourism in association with Pondicherry Municipality and PWD.
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