A wholesale market to sell fruits, vegetables and flowers is coming up at Old Pettai on an outlay of ₹13.81 crore.
The project was approved at a recently held virtual meeting of Board of Directors of Tirunelveli Smart City Limited. It is to come up near the Truck Terminal and will be built under the Smart City Projects in ward 50 of the corporation. The facility will receive agro produce directly from farmers and send them to various destinations.
Tirunelveli handles 470 tonnes which include vegetables (391.20 tonnes), fruits (72 tonnes) and flowers (6.80 tonnes), which are distributed to retailers through wholesale markets and ‘mandis’ located at various locations in the city. This causes hardship in distribution and traffic congestion in Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai.
The new market is to come up on 35.74 acres with a built up area of 1.41 acres with state-of-the-art cold storage facility through renewable energy (rooftop solar power panels). It will have 85 shops with 1,538.25 square metre area and 10 each loading / unloading bays for lorries and light commercial vehicles (LCVs). Moreover, 105 LCVs and 205 two-wheelers can be parked. The market has the advantage of being located near the existing truck terminal and micro composting centre for solid waste management.
“Since, trucks carrying a range of commodities come to the truck terminal everyday from various destinations, the market can tap this facility without affecting traffic in the city. While the unsold agro products can be safely stored in the cold storage facility which has a capacity of 100 tonnes, the perishable waste can be converted into the manure in the nearby micro compost centre,” V. Narayanan Nair, Chief Executive Officer, Tirunelveli Smart City, said on Saturday.
According to the projections made, the market is expected to generate annual revenue of ₹1.25 crore and make a net income of ₹90.72 lakh after a gross expense of ₹35 lakh.
Smart bus shelters
The board meeting also cleared the proposal to create ‘smart bus shelters’ at 15 places in Melapalayam and Palayamkottai Zones on an outlay of ₹2.12 crore. The shelters will have a passenger information display board, CCTV cameras, advertisement panel, LED lighting, stainless steel roof and seating, safety railing, ramp for ensuring easy access to the physically challenged commuters and mobile phone charging points.
The shelters will come up at Kurichi Junction, near Melapalayam Zone Office, opposite Melapalayam Zone Office, in front of VST mosque, opposite VST mosque, Xavier Colony, NGO Colony bus-stop on Thiruvananthapuram Highway, Tuckerammalpuram bus stop (towards new bus-stand) and Tuckerammalpuram bus-stop (towards Reddiyarpatti), all under Melapalayam Zone and VOC Stadium, Krishna Hospital, Christhu Raja Higher Secondary School, Anna Nagar (near Salvation Army church) and Anna Nagar (Junction Roadside) and Shanthi Nagar (Junction bus-stop), all in Palayamkottai Zone.
“Each shelter will be established at a cost of ₹14.13 lakh,” he said.
The board has also approved the proposal for creating 2-meter-wide ‘cycle track’ in NGO Colony between the Periyakulam and Annai Kalyana Mandapam for about 1.80 km at a cost of ₹ 2.84 crore.
