The flower market at Mullickghat. A Telegraph picture

Over 300 flower traders whose shops at Mullickghat were gutted last month will shift to a temporary market in the same locality on Wednesday.

The West Bengal Horticulture Development Corporation built 274 makeshift shops for them after receiving permission from the Calcutta Port Trust, the custodian of the Hooghly riverfront.

“We will provide temporary accommodation to those whose shops were destroyed in the fire. The new shops are located next to the old flower market; this should ensure that business is not affected,” said horticulture minister Mohanta Chatterjee, who oversees the corporation.

The traders will function out of the temporary address till end-2009, when they will shift to the market building that has been proposed at Mullickghat. ICCI Infra has been engaged as construction consultants for the proposed flower market “of international standard”, to be built on a 4.8-bigha plot with a budget of Rs 26 crore.

“Bengal is the third largest flower producer in the country after Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. About 6,500 tonnes of flowers are produced in the state annually. However, Calcutta’s share in the Rs 600-crore floriculture business in India is only Rs 30 crore. The new market will boost the floriculture business in the city,” the minister said.

The fire prompted the government to bring about 5,000 flower traders under an accident insurance scheme. The premium will be paid by the Mullickghat Phoolbazar Parichalan Samity. “We have plans to introduce a provident fund for flower traders,” said Sudhangsu Sil, the local MP and the chairman of the samity.

The proposed market will have auction centres and facilities to sort, grade and package flowers. It will also have a cold storage facility to preserve flowers and a laboratory to extract essential oils, Sil said.