HEADLINES:  

PALIKA BAZAAR

Palika Bazaar is a fully air conditioned underground market situated at the entrance of Connaught place in the heart of Delhi. Palika bazaar is India's first underground market and it is named after Nagarpalika. Palika bazaar is named after Palika bazaar in Mumbai. Palika bazaar is situated between the inner and outer circle of Connaught place in Delhi. Palika bazaar was inaugurated in the early 1970's and for the next ten years it has seen thousands and thousands of customers visiting this market on a daily basis. But however with the advent of many new malls in the city the number of visitors coming to Palika bazaar has declined considerably.

But today the Government is working on to revive the glory of Palika bazaar and its vicinity by renovating it. There are more than 400 shops in Palika bazaar where each one sells a wide range of items. But however most of the shops in Palika bazaar are into textiles and clothing and more of ready-mades. The market of Palika bazaar is predominated by shops which deal with electronic items and clothing. Palika bazaar is a huge market which can easily accommodate at least 25,000 people at any given time and also attracts many foreigners who come to the capital. The products in this market are not highly priced. Palika bazaar is also noted for its illegal market products like pornography, stolen goods, fake designer products and pirated CDs, software and movies.

Though there are continuous raids which happen in this market, still the police are not able to put an end to the illegal activity in the market. Palika bazaar gives a wide display of products which includes accessories, perfume, foot wears and much more. Though most of the shops here carry the tag saying fixed rates bargaining works wonders at Palika bazaar like any market in Delhi. It is capable for us to bargain and get the lowest price for products. The ideal market to buy clothes and other electronic items at a very low level of pricing, then the best place to shop in Delhi is Palika bazaar. Palika bazaar is noted for its pirated CD's.

Palika Bazaar is Very Well Connected:

The specialty of Palika bazaar is that it can be entered through seven different entrances and also has an underground parking. Palika bazaar is very well connected to the rest of the places of the city with public transport like metro, buses and taxis. As part of a wider effort, the New Delhi Municipal Council is currently working on plans for a major "regeneration of Palika Bazaar", described to be in a state of decay.

There are nearly 7 gates at Palika bazaar:

Gate no. 1: Main gate. Faces Connaught Place Central Park, with F Block on the right and Palika Underground Parking on the left. There is also a staircase entry.

Gate no. 2: Faces Palika Underground Parking. There is also a special entry for the handicapped people.

Gate no. 3: This gate is not in use. Faces Palika Underground Parking. Closed to the public.

Gate no. 4: This is a spiral staircase entry with two doors, one not in use. Door in use faces Parliament Street, Regal Building and Jeevan Bharti building.

Gate no. 5: This is a spiral staircase entry with two doors. One door faces Janpath, N Block and Jeevan Bharti building, the other faces towards Palika Underground Parking.

Gate no. 6: This is a staircase entry. Faces N Block and F Block.

Gate no. 7: This is a handicap ramp entry. Faces F Block.

Most of the products sold here are not really expensive:

This is a huge market which caters to all class of crowds and a wide range of products like footwear, clothing, nightwear, perfumes, accessories, electronic gadgets, DVDs and CDs. Most of the products sold here are not really very expensive for they are priced at a much cheaper rate.The shops in the bazaar extent to the sides of the pavement and shopkeepers offer the customers everything such as home furnishing, fashionable clothing, bags, cosmetics, belts, sweaters, footwear, and other accessories. Palika baaar is not only famous among the natives of Delhi but also among the tourists and especially the students and college- going for it caters to all their requirements.

There are lot of items which can be taken back home for friends and loved ones as a souvenir. One may find at Palika bazaar a wide display of curious and small knack knacks to be bought. Bargaining is the most common or must concept which has to be followed in any market place at the time of shopping. This goes very true at Palika bazaar and has to be followed very rigorously. Palika bazaar is busy throughout the week and remains closed only on Sundays. Children get very excited by the video games shops at Palika bazaar for there is variety of games which is available at a much cheaper rate. Palika bazaar cannot be branded as the grey electronic market, for now it deals with lot of other Chinese products too. Palika bazaar claims to be Asia's only underground, air-conditioned shopping centre, with escalators.

Lot of Tattoo Parlors in Palika Bazaar

There are lot of tattoo parlors in Palika bazaar which mainly attract the teenagers and the college goers. The tattoo experts here are very good at tattooing for the rate of speed at which they do they cover lot of crowd and make very good money. These are done in exclusive tattoo parlours. If you are lucky you can get a very cheap buy or the best dealings for hardwares. One of the unique features of Palika bazaar is the casual atmosphere, corresponding to a flea market or a bazaar and in a small place that deals in high-technology products. We can also see pavement hawkers inside the air conditioned bazaar selling goods like printer toner cartridges, blank optical media, and printer paper and even software on the pavements either in a small stall.

Palika Bazaar makes us lost:

We should not be surprised to see people selling small computer related gadgets in a very tiny shop too. The market is always seen in complete disorder and confusion with shops dealing with clothes, kitchenware, costume jewellery and footwear lined up in a row. The home furnishing shops have a wide display of different varieties of home furnishings like bed linen, curtains, table cloth, bath mats, shower curtains and a number of various other furnishing items. Apart from the above there are curious other little things sold in the shops in the Palika bazaar which will make us loose our heart like perfumes and crockeries and cutleries in different eye catching shapes.

Lot of Shops sell Colorful Foot Wears

Ceramic pots, urns, artificial flowers and curtains in fabrics and beads are the few other things which get in the list of shopping unplanned. But still they brighten up the day. There are number of gift shops for surprising the loved one with amazing gifts, dry fruits shops stationery for kids, etc. This market deals with all the latest and trendiest costumes suiting the present culture at a much lost price like a chiffon dress of full length or mini clothes suiting for a pub culture is also easily available in this market. There are lot of shops which sell colorful foot wears for a very cheap rate and attracts mainly the younger generation like the students and the college goers who can match their costume with vibrant colored foot wears.

Palika Bazaar Shopkeepers Welfare Association:

After the establishment of Palika bazaar, most of the shops and stores in Panchkuian Road were shifted from there and placed inside this air conditioned underground market. The New Delhi Muncipal Corporation promised the Panchkuian store owners who shifted to the new market that there wouldn't be any competition from street markets nearby and that they would continue to get the bulk of customers. Hitesh Sharma, general secretary of the Palika Bazaar Shopkeepers Welfare Association says that there are more 150 stalls on the footpath around this area.

Some of the most famous hotels near Palika Bazaar are

The Corus
Hotel Alka
Hotel Palace Heights
Radisson Blu Marina Hotel
Hotel Bright
The Connaught
The Lalit
The Hans Hotel
Apartment 52
The Imperial

But however the Palika bazaar has lot of display of products from the Chinese counterparts. There are also shops in this underground market which deals with beautiful varieties of handcrafted lamp shades and other decor products. Lloyd Electronics is one stop shop in Palika bazaar for PS3, Xbox games, Chinese electronics, DVD players, cameras, gaming consoles and much more. This shop is situated very close to Gate number 7.

The other nearby markets to Palika bazaar are the Connaught place and the Janpath market. Though initially Palika bazaar was buzzed by the people from the upper middle class for products like imported and luxury electronic gadgets, nowadays it is flocked by the tourists and other locales too to run through the nearly 100 stores for cheap textiles and DVDs, or simply to chill in the air-conditioning.