The constant drumming by the rain on the asbestos roof combines with the howling wind outside to drown the voice of at least a thousand people haggling under the roofs as the day’s business reaches a crescendo at the Ernakulam market.
It is mid-day on Friday, the busiest day and time in a week for Ernakulam market, the heart of trade in vegetable, banana, meat, fish, eggs and grains in central Kerala.
The rains have not relented since early morning. Everything is soaked in water and the Basin Canal, running up to Shanmugham Road, marking the northern boundary of the market, has swelled; its thick, black water is emptying at a brisk pace into the Vembanad Lake.
The plight of the canal, the sight of which will make you cringe, reflects the fate of the market, which is fast losing its stature despite its historic importance and link to the story of the growth of Kochi as the business capital of the State.
The clay tile roof row of buildings that run in the east-west and north-south directions were built 61 years ago after the row of thatched sheds went up in flames in 1949, said L. A. Joshi, formerly president of the Kerala Merchants’ Union and a veteran banana trader in the market.
Since then nothing had changed, he said in frustration as he pointed to the failure of successive administrators of the Kochi Corporation to give the market a facelift or to turn it into a modern, hygienic facility despite its strong presence in different phases of the growth of Ernakulam.
The buildings are in disrepair. The roofs leak and makeshift vending units were choking the little space it has, said Mr. Joshi.
He said that the Ernakulam market logs a business in the range of Rs. 3 crore in fruits, vegetables and bananas daily.
However, not a rupee has been invested in improving its facilities.
There are not even the basic amenities for the customers who come to the market daily. Thousands of them throng the market on week days as it doubles up as a retail market in the afternoons.
Mr. Joshi recalled that the then municipal administrators charged fifty paise from those who rented the clay tile roofed shops that came up in a row in 1952. The rentals had gone up over the years but not the facilities, he said.
A waste treatment plant, set up by the Corporation of Cochin a few years ago, is not functional. In fact, it has taken up precious space in the market area.
The traders are now demanding that the facility be dismantled and the place cleaned up to prepare place for auctioning of vegetables and bananas.
T.K. Ashraf, heading the corporation’s standing committee on health, said a project had been approved recently under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The project had been on the backburner for a long time now, said Mr. Joshi.
He said the merchants had offered to rebuild the market but the Corporation had not responded.
He also contested claims that the old, dilapidated and crumbling structures needed to be preserved as heritage. These buildings are in such poor shape that nothing can be done with it.
Instead, a modern market was needed now in keeping with the growing stature of Ernakulam.
