Mumbai's old yarn: Textile market Mooljee Jaitha waits for a new thread

Mooljee Jaitha, Asia's largest textile market at which several industrialists began their careers, awaits a long-overdue redevelopment

Stories pave the labyrinthine alleys of the Mooljee Jaitha market. The 4.1-acre property in Mumbai, which houses 1,000-odd shops — cubbyholes really, padded with white cushioned seats — was once bursting at the seams with fabric and people. Today, it is mostly bare but for a few stragglers who hang around while a family shops for a trousseau. Yet, almost every tradesman here is brimful of tales of a bygone era — when the market was the business hub of the textile world’s future big names.

An empty corner marks the spot where Dhirubhai Ambani traded in yarn. And a