Gold buyers may feel the brunt if Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazar is relocated

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Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar, India’s gold and silver jewellery hub may soon get a new address. Asia’s largest gold market, which records a footfall of over 5 lakh people everyday, could be relocated to a 60-70 acre plot in Kharghar owing to space constraints, The Economic Times reported.

According to the report, Prithviraj Kothari, President of India Bullion & Jewellers Association(IBJA) said that he is planning to invest Rs 10,000 crore to set up an Industrial park for gold. The plots will be finalised after thorough discussion with the state government once the Covid-19 outbreak is contained, Kothari said.

Due to limited space, there’s a lot of congestion and traffic jam around the market everyday and it is next to impossible to move in these narrow overcrowded lanes following Covid-19 protocols.

The 150-year old Zaveri Bazaar is presently situated between the Crawford Market and Mumbadevi area. It records over 60% of the country’s gold trading with a daily turnover of over Rs 900 crore on a daily basis in regular market conditions. It provides employment to about 3-4 lakh artisans.

The jewellery hub is equipped with over 3,000 small and big shops, over 35,000 manufacturing units that operate from an average space of 100-150 square feet each. Besides, many buildings in the complex are under the eye of BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation).

On the contrary, Mumbai Jewellers association’s Vice President Kumar Jain said, “Relocating Zaveri Bazar is next to impossible as this will increase the cost for jewellers as well as labourers and risk in doing the business. Even in 2015 the same concern was raised but had to drop as hardly any jewellers agreed to move.”

The businesses will be impacted since Zaveri bazaar is located within the city right now and other related markets are within a radius of 3km, whereas the suggested place is towards the outskirts, Jain added.

The proposal to shift is not being welcomed by many among the jewellers association. Hence, the market could get divided. The relocation would directly affect the retail jewellery sales as there will be limited options available for the buyers in one place. The new place, undoubtedly, would be spacious and attractive, but the cost will have to be borne by the retail buyers.