CHENNAI: The Koyambedu Market gates will soon have access control and shop licencees will be given radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to enter the market. This will curb unauthorised vendors from entering. The move comes close on the heels of the Madras High Court setting a 10-point guideline to reform the Koyambedu wholesale market.
The Market Management Committee (MMC) sources told Express that the RFID cards would allow only two trucks for each licensee into the market to load and unload the goods.
This would also end the manual billing where trucks were being chased by contractors who collected the entry fee. “Everything will now be computerised,” said an MMC source.
He also said the MMC on Wednesday went on a massive eviction drive, throwing out 450 shops. “These shops encroached the market space and were selling fruits, flowers and vegetables,” MMC sources said.
Meanwhile, the MMC has begun taking action against 700 shops that have not renewed their licence. “We have already sealed a few shops and are launching a major crackdown soon,” said the source.
He said the licences of most shops had expired in 2015 and the shopkeepers did not renew these, despite warnings. “We are also planning to take action against 60 shops which encroached upon market space,” the MMC source said.
The biggest challenge for the MMC will be to clear the encroachments in the fruit and vegetable market. “The service lanes have been encroached and unlicensed hotels are being run inside the market,” said the source.Meanwhile the proposal to trifurcate the Koyambedu market has been sent to government. The Madras High Court had suggested trifurcating the Koyambedu market into three areas and a list of committees to be appointed with an administrator under the Tamil Nadu Specified Commodities Markets (Regulation of Location) Act, 1996.“We are doing away with the jumbo committees. Each market would have not more than five to six,” the sources added.