CHENNAI: Amid the Madras High Court hardening its stand on the eviction of encroachments on the Loop Road, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on Tuesday informed the court that a modern fish market would be operational in six months and the vendors would be relocated.
Submitting a status report on behalf of the GCC commissioner before the division bench of Justices SS Sundar and PB Balaji when a suo motu writ petition came up for hearing, Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran said the market would have the facility to accommodate 384 vendors. “The modern fish market costing Rs 9.97 crore is under construction at Nochi Nagar on the Loop Road. Work will be completed in six months,” he told the court.
The new facility will consist of a storage facility for fish boxes, a separate area for fish cutting and washing, a sewage treatment plant, modern toilets and a parking bay for 155 two-wheelers and 60 four-wheelers. Ravindran prayed for the court to grant more time to relocate the vendors and promised all necessary action to ensure the free flow of traffic till such time, on Loop Road.
To this, the bench asked, whether encroachments will be allowed to stay on the road for six more months. While the civic body is trumpeting beautifying the city into “Singara Chennai”, the Loop Road is getting spoiled by people who have put up stalls on the road, wash fish on it and have raised eateries abutting the road, leading to haphazard parking, the bench said. Making it clear that the court will not show leniency, the bench ordered the GCC to remove all encroachments and verify whether eateries have obtained proper licenses. Directing the civic body to file a report, the bench posted the hearing to April 18.