If the government goes for any sort demolition at the market, it would be a disaster for the traders in this market. Over 30 thousand wholesalers are currently trading at the market but only a few hundred of them might get shops once the new market is built there.

Under a Tk 206 crore project the government has chosen this land along with three other sites --Aminbazar, Lalbagh and Tejgaon -- to build wholesale kitchen markets evicting the biggest wholesale market at Karwan Bazar in the heart of the city.

Jatrabari wholesale market was established in 1996. Small traders started with a fish market, which gradually turned into a large wholesale market.

Every day a huge number of retailers from every corner of the city gather here to buy essential products and supply those to other kitchen markets in the city.

The wholesalers at Jatrabari have built a chain with thousands of small traders across the country. Apart from running the largest sheep market, they sell fruits, vegetables, fish, dry fish and many other products to retailers. Some 10 to 12 small industries are also there.

"We are working in cooperation with the producers. You can get both local and imported fish here...We have constant touch with the producers as well as the retailers of hats and bazaars in different districts," said Abu Bakar Siddique of Dhaka Matsya Bazar.

Although the government has said the existing traders will get shops in the new market, most of the traders said it is virtually impossible to accommodate and compensate the thousands of traders currently running their business at Jatrabari.

Chief Executive Officer Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Mohammad Saifuddin Ahmed said: "DCC will allocate shops of the markets to the existing traders. They should not be panicked. Our aim is to disperse Karwan Bazar and organise the whole set-up."

But Jatrabari traders are now passing their days in fear of eviction. They alleged that the government has ignored their request to build the new market on the adjacent 8-acre land instead of demolishing the existing market.

"We will fight to establish our rights...We will not let the authorities demolish this market that is the only source of income for over five lakh people. We would build up strong resistance," said one of the wholesale traders at Jatrabari.

Many of the traders said the whole move to build the market at this site is apparently designed to facilitate a vested group who own up to eight acres of land in the adjacent area.

"Well, we hail the government move...but why have they chosen this land....as you can see vast unused government land only 500 yards away from this spot," said one of the leaders of Jatrabari Babosayee Malik Bohumukhi Samobay Samity.

Earlier on January 4, 2004, the then LGRD and cooperatives minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan suggested that the proposed wholesale market in Jatrabari should be built on the adjacent land without demolishing the existing market.

But ignoring the request of the traders, the central land allocation committee comprising the officials of the ministries of LGRD and commerce, and DCC approved the site for building the market. The land owners will get compensation and traders will get shops.

Shamim Kabir Bhuiyan, secretary of Jatrabari Babosayee Malik Bohumukhi Somobay Samity, expressed doubt whether the small traders have the money to get shops from DCC.

"I think most of the small traders does not have the money. On the other hand how will they accommodate five lakh people in 440 shops?" he said.

Referring to the huge allocation to build the market, he said: "The government can give us the money as loan...we will make our market modernised."

On a spot visit to the market, this correspondent found the land has been separated in a strange way, carefully considering the land owned by Nazimuddin Chairman, Bengal Plastic Industries Ltd owner Morshed Alam, and Abdur Rahman -- a neighbour to the DCC mayor.

Sources said Nazimuddin Chairman has recently established some small shops over his part of land though vast area is still left without any structure.