2. Introduction

2. Introduction

Indian markets have always been known to be congested, claustrum and overcrowded. It is, in fact, one of the recognising trait of a typical Indian market of any state. Market areas have always been seen with substantial amount of encroachment leaving minimal amount of space for pedestrian to pass through. There is always traffic near the market area and thus the problem of congestion is nothing but common. Bhubaneswar developed much later than majority of the cities across India and transformed into a smart city through various planning and developments schemes vested at the hand of the governments. Unit 1 market area of Bhubaneswar is a highly busy area laden with goods from all over the place. During early decades of its development there were encroachment of the hawkers in this area. The reaction of BDA on the early encroachment, in which they tried to integrate the hawkers into the market area rather than eradicating them, has resulted into this highly crowded situation which in turn affects the traffic and the main road.

With this research we tried to find out what are the causes / root problems which has led to such seemingly irreparable congestion problem in the Unit 1 market area of Bhubaneswar; and how it could be solved in view of architecture and planning.