Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML) has set February 2024 as the deadline to complete the ₹72.68-crore Ernakulam market modernisation project.
It will ensure a hygienic and well-planned market that will have 213 stalls spread over the ground and first floor, and also basement parking for 150 cars. The construction of a skywalk from approach roads to the market complex that had been mooted earlier this year has been postponed to a later stage.
Even otherwise, the new market complex will considerably streamline the flow of vehicles on Shanmugham Road and Market Road and lessen parking woes, official sources said. “It will also avert the need to park goods carriers on roads and other public spaces for unloading since the market will have dedicated spaces to load and unload cargo and for auctioning,” they added.
There will also be ramps for vehicles to ferry goods up to the first floor. It will be in addition to dedicated lifts for people and cargo as mandated in building rules. A slaughterhouse, solid waste treatment facility, and a sewage treatment plant too will be readied. Above all, there will be a three-year maintenance contract to ensure the upkeep of the entire complex. The Kochi Corporation will have to take up its maintenance from the fourth year, they added.
Work in progress for the Ernakulam market modernisation project on Friday. | Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT
In addition, red, green and yellow buckets will be provided to each stall, and they will be cleaned multiple times every day. Piling is over for the complex that will be spread over 19,960 square metres, while basement excavation work is on. The Corporation will take a call on raising revenue from the second and third floors of the market complex, it is learnt.
Kerala Merchants Chamber of Commerce president K.M. Mohammed Sageer hoped the Corporation and other agencies would ensure prompt upkeep of the market complex, which has been portrayed as a unique and modern one. “Any failure in this regard will result in it becoming yet another ill-maintained government building. Already, traders are encountering sleepless nights owing to apathy of civic agencies in cleaning drains. Vehicle parking is yet another challenge in and around the market,” he said.
