MARGAO
The stage is finally set to throw open the Goa model of the Dubai fish market at the SGPDA mega market. Exactly 17 years after Margao’s fish market was shifted in the dead of the night to the SGPDA market complex on June 25, 2001, the retail fish market, refurbished on the lines of Dubai fish market at an estimated cost of Rs two crore, will be opened for fish vendors and customers on June 25.
Fish vendors and cutters will now all do business in the market with smart cards. The RCC platforms in the market have given way to steel trays with compartments at all the 104 stalls. Fish baskets will hopefully become a thing of the past as provision is made for storage for fish and ice. An elaborate drainage network has been laid in the fish market and the market is proposed to be cleaned up on a weekly basis with a jet washing system.
A confident-looking TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai said water accumulation in the market passages will be a thing of the past, even going to the extent of saying that customers wearing the best of shoes will not have to worry about their footwear getting spoilt.
Taking a final review of the fish market in the SGPDA complex on Sunday, along with SGPDA member Secretary Ashok Kumar, the TCP Minister said it has been finally decided to inaugurate the refurbished fish market on June 25, the day when the fish market was shifted to the PDA market 17 years ago.
“The Margao fish market will emerge as the best fish market in the entire country. We have copied the Dubai fish market model, but the only difference the market there is air conditioned and here we could not provide that luxury because of different circumstances”.
Saying that the market could have been inaugurated on June 18 as per the deadline set earlier, Sardesai said, “Haste makes waste. Some things needs to be smoothened as there were teething problems, which needed to be fixed,” he said.
Saying that the government has spent close to Rs two crore on the renovation of the market, the TCP Minister made a humble appeal to the fish vendors to contribute with a big heart towards its maintenance. “The Secretary, TCP, has raised a query how much revenue will the government earn after spending huge amount on the market. Leave along earning, we would only expect the vendors to contribute generously towards the market maintenance. I am confident the renovated market will bring in more customers and more business for the vendors,” he said.
He said a full-fledged supervisor will enforce discipline in the market, while it will be cleaned by an agency using jet cleaners. The entire market will be illuminated and it will have separate power meters, he said, adding “the PDA will foot the water bill.”
“The market will have LED lighting. Since the PWD raised queries over the illumination work, the work has now been entrusted to the GSIDC,” he added.
