Wholesale traders in onion, banana, jaggery and fruits, currently functioning around Gandhi Market in the city, could soon be asked to shift to G.Corner grounds along the Tiruchi-Chennai bypass road in the city soon if the corporation managed to give shape to its proposal.
The Corporation Council on Wednesday approved a proposal to shift the ‘vengayya mandi,’ ‘vazhakai mandi,’ ‘vellamandi’ and the ‘pazha mandi’ to G.Corner grounds where the civic body owns about five acres of land. However, the council’s nod came with a rider as it asked the officials to implement the decision in consultation with the traders concerned.
The move comes in the wake of a long-pending proposal to shift the wholesale sections to the outskirts of the city.
Over the past two decades, sporadic efforts were made to identify a suitable location for shifting the wholesale traders, all of whom occupy the peripheries of Gandhi Market, making the area a major traffic bottleneck.
But the efforts came a cropper and a couple of years ago, a move to acquire the Aavin lands at Ariyamangalam for the purpose, was struck down by the Madurai Bench of the High Court of Madras.
An official resolution approved by the council pointed out that Gandhi Market, established around 70 years ago, was facing heavy congestion. Road traffic around the market often came to a standstill as the wholesale mandis were all situated around the market.
A slaughter house has been established at G.Corner where 6.42 acres of land was handed over to the corporation in 2000 by the district administration.
The remaining five acres was available for relocating the mandis. Being close to the highway, the site would be ideally suited for the traders to carry on their business without any hindrance to traffic. The corporation would soon clean the grounds to enable the shifting of the shops, the resolution said.
Speaking on the subject, M.Mohamed Mustafa, MDMK, wondered whether five acres would be adequate to accommodate all the shops. A few other councillors pointed out that some of the wholesale traders, such as the onion traders, have acquired own lands. The councillors asked the officials to take the traders into confidence before implementing the decision.
