The district administration’s plan to “re-model” the newly established Central Market for Vegetables, Fruits and Flowers at Kallikudi on the outskirts of the city, to offer bigger shops to wholesale traders, is likely to get the nod from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), which had funded the project.
“We are in principle agreeable to the move and will consider a formal proposal,” S. Nagoor Ali Jinnah, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Chennai, told The Hindu after inspecting the market complex along with senior officials of the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agri Business here on Monday.
The market, about 12 km from the Central Bus Stand in the city, was built at an estimate of ₹65 crore with an assistance from the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund of NABARD.
A section of traders of Gandhi Market were opposed to the move and one of the reasons cited by them was that the shops in the new market were too small.
Of the 1,000 shops in the market, 264 were of 150 sq ft in size and the rest 100 sq ft, according to official sources. The district administration has planned to make 500 of the shops in the ground floor bigger by dismantling the wall between two shops. The remodelling work is expected to begin once necessary approvals are obtained.
Mr. Jinnah also disclosed that NABARD would support modernisation of infrastructure of regulated markets and agriculture marketing societies to enable them to link up with e-NAM (electronic- National Agriculture Market) which would enable farmers get better prices for their produce.
