Saharanpur's geographical and topographical position makes it an ideal trade, industrial and business centre. Saharanpur is the meeting point of various states of India - Haryana,  Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.  It also lies on the India's most important and perhaps the oldest Mumbai - Amritsar and Howrah - Amritsar rail routes.  Saharanpur is also having road links with Delhi, Haryana (Jagadhari, Yamunanagar, Ambala), Dehradun, Roorkee, Hardwar, Chakrata etc. 

Everyday,  thousands of traders visit  to the various wholesale/retail markets of Saharanpur often looking for the following merchandise :

• Cloth 
• Herbal medicines (human / veterinary)
• Paans, supari, katha
• Hosiery
• handicrafts
• Agro-based Equipments
• Food Grains
• Footwear
• Hardware (Home furnishings and fittings)
• Sweets and Namkeens
• Bangles
• Sarrafa

Maharaja Agrasain Chowk at Railway Station / Roadways Bus Stand

If we start from Railway station /local bus stand, the first road we would come to is the Railway Road which starts at Maharaja Agrasain Chowk. There is a very attractive and elegant golden statue of Maharaja Agrasain at the start of Railway Road.   There are many show-rooms for agro-based equipments and other machinery here.

4-sided clock on white building gives this busy place its name "Clock Tower"

Also, there are some banks, dhabas, railway ticket Out-Agencies and hotels etc. on Railway Road. Railway Road ends at Clock tower - at a distance of 500 meters approx.  Clock Tower is the junction where Railway Road, Court Road, Ambala Road, Dehradun Road and Bhagat Singh Marg meet. The famous landmarks at Clock Tower are Hanuman Temple, statue of S. Bhagat Singh, Gandhi Ashram building and of course - the Clock Tower on a white building.  Needless to mention that it is one of the busiest market areas in Saharanpur. Bhagat Singh Marg starting from Clock Tower and ending at Shri Ram Chowk is yet another important retail market where there are some banks, sweet shops, bakeries and confectionaries, hotels, guest houses, books shops and big show rooms etc. are situated.  There is permanent traffic jam here - thanks to complete apathy of police administration.  No four-wheelers should be allowed here in this market area but the police staff on duty has never been seen stopping anyone except trucks, buses and tractor trolleys during day time.  The police is specially wary of Scorpios, Cheverlets bearing flags of one or the other political parties. 

Shri Ram Chowk is the T joint from where the road coming from Clock Tower continues with a new name Nehru Market and another road starts as Pratap Market. Pratap Market has earned the dubious distinction of being the most encroached market place in Saharanpur.  The shopkeepers - who deal here in old motor bikes must be knowing how to tame the police officers and the local civil administration.  This motorbike market is a recent ominous development in the last 3-4 years.  Earlier, it was a respectable Cycles Market. However, making mockery of the administration,  traders here are fast switching to old motorbikes sale-purchase business earning handsome commission from sellers as well as buyers.

A determined and caring administration which would not be lured by a regular share in this commission income can get rid of all these encroaching shopkeepers. But do such officers exist these days ?  Only the time will tell. 

If we cross the river bridge (Pul Jogian), we have to make a selection out of three (in fact, four) options. By taking a left turn we get onto the Bomanji Road.  By the way, if you are new to Saharanpur, it is better not to take this road because,  you could vomit your food intakes here - thanks to the excreta and rubbish accumulated by the local Municipal Corporation here.

Strangely, the officers of the local Municipality of Saharanpur have earmarked 4-5 open-to-sky places as Garbage Collection Centres on this busy street and it is very easy to feel nausea and start vomitting if you can't take the site of pigs and stray dogs exploring this rubbish.  Even more strangely, the residents and shopkeepers of this road haven't objected to these Garbage Collection Centres at all.  May be they are even enjoying it.  So, by all means, avoid coming to this road if you are apalled by extreta and rubbish lying in open.

Well, if we move towards the right keeping us on the highway, we are on the Chakrata Road.  The ill-fated Bomanji Road and the Chakrata Road meet again at Vikas Nagar Bus Stand - more popular as Behat Bus Stand.

However, taking 90 degree right turn after crossing Pul Jogian, we find ourselves on the Rakesh Cinema Road.  It is the less prominent road but here is the market for pesticides and seeds.  Also, there are many kabadis (dealing in iron scrap) who consider entire width of the road as an extension of their shops.  The forth option - is in fact a lane straight ahead entering into Shahmadar locality.  But if you are in a four-wheeler, it is very easy to overlook this lane.   

Coming back to Shri Ram Chowk, a narrow street - Kishanpura takes us to the wholesale medicine market. The street has developed itself into a wholesale medicine market even though nearby  Khan Market complex was meant for this purpose till last decade. Many pharma distributors have opted to shift their shops from Khan Market to Kishanpura. Kishanpura is parallel to the Bhagat Singh Market road and there are many connecting crossroads between these two.

Bhagat Singh Marg continues as Nehru Market after the T joint of Shri Ram Chowk and the Nehru market ends at the next bifurcation to continue either as Nakhasa market (left) or Shaheed Ganj (right).  A little before this intersection, Nehru Market has two openings for Lohani Sarai at its left.  Lohani Sarai and Loha Bazar are the right places if you are looking for iron, brass and aluminium hardware.

In Nakhasa Bazar there are scores of shops of watches & clocks, paan, supari katha, footwear etc.  Eventually, it becomes Sarrafa Market and very soon, the stainless steel utensils market.  Steel utensils market gives way to Halwai Hatta.  Thereafter, it is Dinanath Bazar, Rani Bazar, Baratala Yaadgar etc.

Shaheed Ganj market is a general market and there are shops of electrical appliances, cloth material, cotton, bamboo and jute etc.  At the end of this market is the Jama Masjid.  If we continue further ahead, we may enter either the Moreganj - the grain market or the Kakkar Ganj.  Bazar Kakaar Ganj has various openings for Punjabi Market but here are some attars who sell traditional medicines.  Punjabi Market and Raiwala cloth market (which is at some distance from here)  are famous wholesale cloth markets of Saharanpur. 

Hiran Maran has a large number of manufacturers and sellers of hosiery cloth items.  Moreganj is the ideal market for purchase of food grains - rice, daal, gur, edible oil, ghee and spices etc.  There are some attars here who sell ayurvedic and Yunani herbal medicines and other items of domestic use.  Nakhasa Bazar has many dealers of paan, supari, katha.  It is also the place for footwears.  There must be hundreds of shops where wall clocks are being sold here.

If your purpose of visiting Saharanpur is to look for sheesham wood handcrafted artwares, go straight to the Bazdaran Street. There are innumerable shops of handicrafts on this road.    

Halwai Hatta has scores of sweets and namkeen shops. Mathari, suali, pakwaan made here are in great demand in various parts of the country. Adjacent to it is the Sarrafa - jewellers market.  For glass bangles, you have to visit to Gauri Shankar Bazar which starts exactly where Sarrafa and Nakhasa (paan, supari, katha) market meet.  In Nakhasa Bazar, footwear market has also mushroomed during the last decade.

Besides the above traditional wholesale markets, Saharanpur has got various retail markets also which are quite fashionable in their looks and appeal. There are big showrooms here.  Court Road represents the best of what Saharanpur has got to offer as a retail fashionable market.  

It is not surprising that Bajoria Road has developed itself into a Healthcare hub where there are a number of private hospitals, nursing homes, maternity homes, clinics, diagnostic centres.  The District Hospital owned and managed by the State and then the Tarawati Hospital - the 'super-speciality' privately managed hospital have served to attract many more health-care services around them.
 

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