MARGAO
June 12, 2018: Hopes were finally raised that Goa’s lone wholesale fish market will be rid of stench and chaos after the Manohar Parrikar-led government laid the foundation stone for the ambitious Rs 12.89 crore SGPDA-owned market development project.
Then Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) Chairman Deepak Pauskar went to the extent of handing out a promise to complete the project within 12 months.
Three years down the line, the ground reality remains unchanged. The wholesale fish market is set to reopen from Tuesday, but there’s no change on the ground. The new fishing season will kickstart from August 1, bringing hundreds of fish-laden vehicles to the market, but there’s no solution in sight for the issues plaguing the state’s lone wholesale fish market.
Inquiries by The Goan has revealed that the Rs 12.89 crore market development project was shelved in view of the changing political equations when the axe fell on MLA Vijai Sardesai after being dropped from the Pramod Sawant cabinet
A change in guard that followed at the SGPDA, however, has also not brought about the change in the market. In fact, there’s no clarity on the roadmap, if any, on how to go about bringing a turnaround in the wholesale fish market.
The SGPDA headed by Congress-turned-BJP MLA Wilfred D’Sa had initially evinced keen interest in the GSIDC project, even suggesting a cold storage facility right in the market to meet the requirements of the Goan fishermen.
The proposal, however, apparently hit a roadblock as the estimated cost crossed the Rs 20-crore mark and state funding was hard to come by. Around this time, the state government and the SGPDA toyed with a proposal of developing the wholesale fish market with funds from the central government.
The central funding proposal was not something new given that a similar proposal was mooted during the tenure of then Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado, but it failed to take off due to land issues.
Says SGPDA Chairman Wilfred D’Sa: “The SGPDA is not averse to accepting the Fisheries Department proposal to develop the wholesale fish market. We had even taken a decision, but certain land rights issues have come to the fore. PDA members have raised certain issues, including ownership of the PDA land once the same is handed over to the Fisheries Department.”
He added: “The PDA wants to retain the ownership of the land. Members have resolved that the planning body should utilize the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) by going vertical. We will have to sit with the Fisheries Department to find out whether the ownership of the land will remain with the PDA.”
GSIDC General Manager, who is handling the wholesale fish market project, Sandesh Chodnekar, said the GSIDC is now reviewing the entire project considering the fact that the state government has evinced interest in sanctioning funds for the development.
“We are on the job to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on the wholesale fish market which will be submitted to the government for submission to the Union Fisheries Ministry. Unlike the previous project, the new project will play host to a cold storage facility, besides a fish testing laboratory right inside the wholesale fish market”.
While the GSIDC is back to the drawing board to design afresh the development project after the initial one failed to take off, the stakeholders, including traders and retailers, have no option but to make do with what is there.
