KR Market is a historic public market situated at the epicenter of the busiest commercial area in Bangalore.  Despite being the city’s largest market, in terms of the volume of commodities sold, it has deteriorated into a chaotic mess – a serious health and safety hazard to vendors and customers. While the area is well connected to other parts of the city through bus and metro, the streets surrounding the market are jammed with trucks and buses, densely crowded, and teeming with market activity. The challenges are multi-fold and include gaps in operational organization, infrastructure provision, maintenance, waste management, traffic management, heritage management, etc.

The upgradation of KR Market –a historic land mark – is a Bengaluru Smart City initiative with a vision to bring together three critical elements of a city’s success – commerce, community and culture.

The KR Market project aims to transform the market into a sustainable, thriving centre of economic, cultural and social importance, whilst safeguarding and enhancing its historic importance to provide for a distinct memorable identity. The key proposals include streamlining the movement of goods, organizing vending and providing the building an infrastructural facelift. The meat market and post-office complex are to be rebuilt and a pedestrian bridge is to connect all components of the project to each other and the bus and metro stations.