PURI: When the Nilachal Urban Haat was launched in 2009 in Puri, the prospects were promising given the huge inflow of tourists to the pilgrim city. 

Almost a decade later, the ramshackle complex is a sight of neglect. Enveloped by wild vegetation, crumbling walls, derelict structures and additional damage inflicted by cyclone Fani that hit the State in 2019, the major tourism infrastructure is now in ruins.

The Urban Haat - a Central Government project - was conceived with the twin goals of increasing tourist footfall and generating employment opportunities. Inaugurated by the then President  Prativa Patil in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and then Governor Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare, the haat ran smoothly for at least two years.

Managed by IDCO and the State Tourism department, it became the venue for open cultural shows in the evenings and a fortnightly national textile exhibition during the annual Rath Yatra. 

While the complex, built at a cost of Rs 11 crore, has 39 shopping counters, traders stopped doing business one by one on grounds of inability to pay rent. Since two years, only three Government-run institutions are housed in the complex but without doing any business. 

After hue and cry in the media, IDCO, Tourism department and department of Handicraft and Textiles had resolved to renovate and revive the complex and met the district Collector and municipality officials about eight month back but no tangible action has followed. Later, it was decided to hand over the Urban Haat to the State Handicraft and Textiles department. 

CGM of IDCO BK Das said,  “Ekamra Haat in Bhubaneswar and Urban Haats in Puri and Konark were to be handed over to the State Handloom and Textiles department. Puri’s Urban Haat was supposed to be handed over by September 1 but couldn’t as Ekamra Haat was handed over first.