Formally opened by Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, this is the first market to be built by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) exclusively for flower sellers. The other 85 markets in the metropolis have been earmarked for vegetable vendors.

Sheds on the 4,000 sq ft area of the old plot had been constructed by the Dadar Phool Vyapari Mandal in 1983, and had obtained the requisite permission from the civic corporation.

Now, the BMC plans to build a hawkers' plaza, with the approval of the hawkers' unions, at this site.

The new site has 542 stalls in an area admeasuring nearly 13,000 sq ft. Compared to the previous 20 sq ft area allotted for each stall, every vendor will now be allocated a 30 sq ft slot.

Dismissing allegations that a number of reluctant flower sellers wereforced to shift to the new site, the chief of the Dadar Navin Phool Vyapari Mandal and former MSEB director, Sudam Mandalik, said all hawkers' unions had, for the first time, united under the banner of the Feriwala Kruti Samiti and unanimously decided to move to the new plot.

The idea of the hawkers' plaza as envisaged by the civic corporation had also been okayed by the Samiti, he further stated.

One of the flower vendors said though he felt sad to leave the old place as he had a sentimental attachment to it, the shift was necessary if Dadar had to be decongested. And after all, the flower sellers weren't moving very far away.

``Not even northward, but southward,'' he said.