Gundri Bazaar to promote local entrepreneurs of hills

DARJEELING,: Darjeeling SP Praween Prakash on Tuesday inaugurated the three-day ‘Gundri Bazaar’ at Chowrasta here held with an aim to promote local entrepreneurs.

Organized by organizations such as Vikrun Foundation and Decible, the fair will also showcase the culture and music of this area along with varied products sold by local entrepreneurs in their stalls.

“This is the fourth edition of Gundri Baazar. This event is being done every year mainly to provide a platform to local entrepreneurs. It started out when these young entrepreneurs had to come back to the hills as a result of job cuts due to the Covid pandemic,” said Vikram Rai, founder member of Vikrun Foundation.

“There are many youngsters who have started small businesses of their own but need a platform to showcase their talents and products as they do not have shops to sell it from. They sell it online and a baazar like this gives them a chance to sell it physically and learn a lot of things which will help their business grow," said Rai.

He added that there were 30 stalls this time with products like food, tea, art and craft, clothes among other things being sold from there.

According to Rai, all of them were young entrepreneurs from different parts of Darjeeling both from the urban and rural areas.

“All the singers that will perform in this three day program will be upcoming singers. We also wanted to provide them a platform to perform,” said Rai.

Lauding the efforts of the organizers, Darjeeling Municipality chairman Dipen Thakuri said, “It is good that such a platform is being created for young entrepreneurs. I feel more such markets should be organized for them.”