On Wednesday night, there was a buzz of activity at the fish market on Senji Salai, with a number of electricians working towards fitting the lights and other electrical connections at the market.
“There was an article in The-Hindu that said the fish market had been delayed because it had not been handed over by the Project Implementation Agency, so we decided to hand it over the very next day,” Assistant Engineer of the PIA Vijayan told The-Hindu .
A letter stating that the PIA had handed over the project was sent to the municipality on Wednesday and the work was completed by late Wednesday night, government officials said.
Although the work has been completed, there is another problem that the municipality will face – the allocation of space inside the complex.
According to sources, initially, the area had very few fisherwomen who were selling. The municipality at that time had collected Re. 1 from them and decided to allot shops in the market to them. Unfortunately, once people heard that they were allotting shop space to fisherwomen who were selling on Senji Salai, the number had multiplied.
The market is for the fisherwomen from three fishing villages around the area, but now people from various villages had started selling there.
Now, every morning there is a large number of fisherwomen selling along the side of the road. They all expect to be given some shop space in the market, but there is only limited space available.
According to an official at the municipality, the revenue section was taking care of the allocation and they expected it to be completed shortly.