Photo Credits: Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
Boat owners, traditional fishermen and fish traders, besides hundreds of fish buyers from across the state have a common question to ask the government -- when will the stink finally disappear from Goa’s lone wholesale fish market, run and operated by the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) at Margao?
Well, when most Goans are still fast asleep in their homes, hundreds, if not thousands of fish vendors, besides hoteliers and restaurant owners head to Goa’s only wholesale fish market at Margao before dawn, located just metres away from the western bypass, to procure their fish requirements for the day.
Besides boat owners and traditional fishermen, who bring their prized catch for sale in the market, tonnes of fish are imported by fish traders from the across the borders in insulated trucks every day.
A visit to the wholesale fish market has revealed that the fishing activity is literally being conducted in muck and stagnated water. Fish buyers as well as sellers literally wade through the muck and water accumulated in the market for want of proper drainage, and not to mention the stink pervading the wholesale fish market.
Against this backdrop, questions are being raised in fish market circles when would the government and SGPDA finally commission the modern wholesale fish market building under construction at the market complex? Executed by the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC), the Rs 38 crore wholesale fish market re-development project is in the final stages of completion.
In fact, a GSIDC official told the Goan that the agency plans to hand over the wholesale market building to the SGPDA by October end. “The project was undertaken with Central assistance in three phases, with Phase-I and Phase-II nearing completion. We intend to hand over the buildings to the SGPDA by October end”, the official added.
Incidentally, the fate of phase-I, the main phase relating to construction of a cold storage facility, primarily for Goan fishermen to store unsold fish, remains unknown. “Goa has received the central grants to re-develop the wholesale fish market because of the cold storage facility. The cold storage facility is yet to take shape since the SGPDA could not make available the balance land for development”, the official said.
The official added: “We will take up the work on the cold storage facility after commissioning the two buildings. The PDA has promised to make available the space to undertake work on the cold storage after the completion of work on the buildings”.
The wholesale fish market was in the news recently after the market came under the scanner of the High Court over the stinking environment. High Court’s intervention has helped to fix a number of issues, including dumping of thermocol waste all along the roadsides and in the water bodies, but there’s a still long way to go before the stink finally disappears from Goa’s lone wholesale fish market.
