Chennai: Swanky fish market off Marina could be answer to traffic woes

In a year’s time, city residents could drive to the Marina-facing Loop Road and park their vehicles inside a fancy fish market, choose from more than 350 vendors and not worry about entering an unhygienic place.
If Greater Chennai Corporation’s plans come to fruition, the market will come up in a 8,000 sq metre site in Dumingkuppam facing the sea. Rs 10 crore was recently allocated by the civic body for this work.
According to an artist’s impression created officially by GCC’s designers, the proposed facility will have a spacious entry with stalls located on the periphery in a rectangular-shaped structure.Every stall will be around 2.5 sq metre with facilities such as water tap points and separate drainage channels, while the overall facility will have an effluent treatment plant and parking space for 110 cars and 60 bikes.
The market has been designed to address multiple issues hindering free flow of traffic. On the Loop Road, hundreds of Chennaiites congregate to buy fish from open stalls operating on the beach. This, according to cops and civic officials, creates traffic jams and accidents and isn’t hygienic.
“The new facility has been planned in such a way that the number of stalls can also be scaled up. Currently, we are building 366 stalls,” a senior official said.
T h e stalls would be provided with kota and g ranite stones for flooring, while it would be entirely lit up with LED fittings. GCC is also planning fly control devices and water storage tanks with a cyclone resistant tensile roofing material.
Another attraction, according to GCC officials, is a foot-overbridge from the market to the beach to avoid accidents on the Loop Road.
GCC officials, however, admitted that the challenge would be to maintain order in the locality given that some fishermen would still want to sell their produce on the beach in open stalls.
“ We will be forming enforcement committees to check them,” said the official. K Bharati, a representative of the local fishermen association, rubbished GCC’s idea and said that this was a way of destroying livelihood of the locals. “The government officials are not willing to listen to suggestions of the locals. We want fish stalls to be built on the beach, where we have been plying our trade for several years. The stalls built in Kasimedu is an example of how it can be done in a neat manner,” he said.