MARGAO
Can Fatordekars and the stakeholders alike hope for a turnaround from the filth and stench at Goa’s lone wholesale fish market in the next one year?
A foundation stone laid by the previous government on June 12, 2018 bears testimony to the neglect and state of affairs in the SGPDA wholesale fish market since the ground reality has remained unchanged for the last four years.
Hopes have finally been raised for a makeover in the market now. The Fisheries Department through the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) is finally bracing up to build a modern wholesale fish market at the present location, with provision for a cold storage facility for the fishermen and a fish testing laboratory right in the SGPDA market.
By tapping funds from the Centre to the tune of Rs 50 crore, which will fund the project on 60:40 basis,
the GSIDC is taking up the work for the Fisheries Department.
In fact, officials in the know say the Fisheries Department, GSIDC and the SGPDA are believed to have inked a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) wherein the GSIDC will execute the project and hand the market to the Fisheries Department, which in turn is expected to allow the SGPDA to run it.
Senior GSIDC officials Sandeep Chodnekar told The Goan that the agency had floated a tender amounting to Rs 13 crore to execute work on the market building before the Assembly election.
Though there was a delay in handing over the market to the GSIDC, delaying the execution of the work, Sandeep now says the SGPDA has now earmarked half of the market land to the agency for the development.
“The GSIDC has already started markings on the market land. The civil work will commence soon,” he said.
He added: “We have drawn up plans to complete the construction of the market building as early as possible. The intervening monsoons may delay the construction work, but we have plans to complete as much work as possible before the onset of monsoons.”
Saying the GSIDC will take the market building construction in Phase-I of the project, he said the GSDIC will float the remaining tenders in phases.
“The new wholesale fish market will have a cold storage facility, wherein fishermen will have a refrigeration facility right in the market. Besides, the market will have an FDA office for testing of fish brought and sold in the wholesale fish market,” he added.
On the discharge and treatment of the effluents discharged in the market, Sandeep pointed out that the BITS Pilani has already set up an Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) at the wholesale fish market.
“There is a proposal to set up a digester to dispose of the leftover fish so that it does not land up in the drains”, Chodnekar said, adding the market surface will be cemented to ensure that there’s no water logging and the fish water is channelized to the ETP.
