Kothapet fish market in a dilapidated condition

Vijayawada: The fish market at Kothapet in I Town which is dilapidated condition, is crying for attention. The building, which was constructed in 2004 to house the market, developed cracks.

Filth, stink and nausea will greet the customers who visit the market. The situation is more horrible during the rainy season as water leaked from the room inundate the stalls. The bad condition of the market raises safety concerns.

Anwar, a 28-year-old, young fish trader, had a providential escape when the fish the railing of first floor market building fell on Anwar when he was speaking to other traders under portico of the building.

That incident had created fear among the other traders in the market. The then Vijayawada Municipal Commissioner Praveen Prakash felt doubts about the building quality, said 60-years-age Umar who is doing fish trading from past 50 years in the market.

Nearly, 400 families are eking out their livelihood
by doing business at Kothapet fish market since five decades. The market is popular not only to fish but also for meat and dry fish.

Earlier, wholesale traders used to export dry fish to Assam, West Bengal and other States, but now, they are now relegated to the city.Kothapet fish market is famous for dry fish.

The retail traders usually go to Visakhapatnam, Nakkapalli, Nizampatnam, Machilipatnam and other areas and buy dry fish for local sale. The fish market business did not cross Rs 10 lakh per month, while exports were also stopped.

The fish market business was gradually decreasing and it confined to Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 per day now. The retail traders said that market was in a bad condition due to leakage of water from slab.

Shaik Haneef, secretary of Hanumantharaya Fish Market, said that the market building was constructed with inferior quality material. Building retail walls collapsing suddenly and many of the workers, traders’ sustained injuries, he added.

“I urged local MLA Jaleel Khan about the problems of the fish market and appealed to him to resolve them. He assured that repairs would
be taken up by VMC, but in vain,” he said. Anwar, a trader, said that they usually bring
fish from Visakhapatnam weekly once.

The business has been dwindling and traders are incurring losses in the business, he pointed out. Adding insult to injury, the VMC authorities are increasing the rent, he said. The VMC is not providing water and maintain building properly, though the traders are paying rent, he lamented.

“Our family was doing fish business since many decades in Kothapet fish market and business has been dwindling day bay day. Open electrical metres are posing a threat to the traders and workers, even the electrical staff are unable to take reading,” said Umar, a trader. He urged the VMC authorities to take up repair works on a war-footing basis.

‘VMC will take action’
Vijayawada Municipal Corporation superintending engineer J V Ramakrishna speaking to The Hans India said that Kothapet fish market problems would be resolved soon.

The engineering department would prepare estimations for repairing the dilapidated market building and proposals would be sent to the commissioner, he said.