COIMBATORE: People living in temporary shelters for several years at Ukkadam Pullukadu can breathe a sigh of relief as the Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration and Water Supply (MAWS) department finally passed the Government Order to rent out the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation's (CCMC) land at Pullukadu to the Coimbatore District Retail Fish Traders Association.
With this, the government can start constructing houses for the sanitary workers at the old fish market's building.
Two fish markets are functioning in Coimbatore. One is the wholesale fish market at Lorrypettai in Ukkadam and the other is the retail fish market on the Perur Bypass Road in Ukkadam. A total of 72 traders own shops in each of these markets and while both of these markets have been functioning for over 50 years, the previous AIADMK government had asked the traders of the retail fish market to vacate the place to make way for development works in the market land.
After several oppositions, the civic body provided an alternate land of about 1.06 acres at Pullukadu in Ukkadam for the retail fish traders who decided to construct their shops and a market. The members of the Coimbatore Retail Fish Traders Association (CRFTA) also pooled money and finished constructing 72 shops in the market over a year ago. However, the association members have been awaiting the nod from the government to rent out the CCMC's land to them.
Similarly, sanitary workers who were residing near the old fish market building on the Perur bypass road in Ukkadam were evicted and shifted to temporary shelters to make way for the flyover's ramps. A total of 727 houses and old housing units at CMC Colony were also demolished.
Sources said, the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) through Ukkadam Project IV built about 235 houses and handed them over to the beneficiaries who lost their houses.
For the remaining 492 housing units, the officials planned to construct a housing unit block with 520 houses and provide them to the people. Though the work to build a housing unit block with only 222 residential units was started in 2020, it was not completed not the residential units have been allotted to the affected people to date.
To construct the remaining 298 residential units, the officials had also decided to shift the traders from the old fish market to the new market building in Pullukadu, demolish the old market building, and build a housing block there.
In this situation, the TN MAWS department passed a GO giving the nod to rent out CCMC's land to the fish traders association with numerous conditions, the shops in the new market must be handed over by the CCMC only after the pending dues are paid in full by the 21 shops' traders and if they fail to do so, the remaining 51 shops in the new market can be handed over by the CCMC.
Traders must obtain a NOC from the CCMC for no pending dues, traders must maintain the facility properly on their own, keep the facility clean by disposing of the fish waste regularly, pay one year's rent as an advance security deposit, pay the rent before 10th of every month and enter into an agreement with CCMC among others.
Once the traders shift to the new market, the old market is set to be demolished and the land will be handed over to the Tamil Nadu Housing Board Department will be building about 400 houses on the land for the people.
