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The Tiruchi Corporation has postponed the auction of shops built at the fish-cum-meat market on the rear side of Gandhi Market on East Boulevard Road in the city due to a litigation by the traders.
The new market is constructed at a cost of ₹13 crore under the Smart Cities Mission. The construction, which was scheduled to be completed in December 2022, was completed in April. Except for some finishing works, the market is ready for opening.
It was constructed after the demolition of the old market, which was said to have been built about 50 years ago. The old market had about 60 stalls for fish, meat and chicken traders. The fish stalls functioning in the old market were relocated to Diamond Jubilee Bazaar, while the meat and poultry traders were permitted to use the space near the abattoir. The new market is constructed on about 25,000 square feet. The two-storey building has 148 stalls with separate provisions made for fish, mutton and chicken traders. The market has a cold storage for the traders to preserve the stock.
According to sources, the civic body plans to allot shops on the ground floor for the retailers and the shops on the first floor for bigger traders as the shops have cold storage facilities. Upon completion of work, the officials of the Corporation began the process of allocating shops and called for auction to allot the shops.
However, it is said that the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court was said to have passed an interim order on a petition filed by a group of 45 traders, who had shops in the old market, seeking priority to them in allocation of shops.
A senior official of the Corporation told The Hindu that the auction for the shop allocation had been postponed. Further course of action would depend upon the High Court order. It had been decided to fix ₹ 75 per square foot for the shops on the first floor and ₹ 77 per square foot for the shops in ground floor.
