Fish on display at the Chilika Fresh kiosk in Bhubaneswar on Friday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 26: Fish lovers are spoilt for choice with Chilika Fresh launching its first outlet here today.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the outlet run by Fishfed near the Siripur market.

Enthused at the response on inaugural day, the fisheries department is planning to open five more outlets in the city by year-end to cater to the growing demand for fish from the Chilika Lake.

The outlets are likely to be opened at Saheed Nagar, Dumduma, Laxmisagar, Baramunda and Old Town.

Shortly after inauguration of the outlet, agriculture and fisheries minister Pradeep Maharathy said: “While we have found land for two outlets, we hope local MLAs will help us open the rest. We will later expand the number of such counters to 20 in the city.”

Tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda, who was present at the inauguration ceremony today, said: “All the three MLAs from Bhubaneswar will try their best to ensure that the fisheries department open the proposed 20 outlets in the next two years.”

Mrityunjay Tripathy, who lives near Siripur Market and came to have a feel of what the outlet has to offer, said: “We can now buy fish in a healthy environment.”

Nearly 1,000 people turned up at the outlet today. “We hope to sell around three quintals by tomorrow morning,” said Maharathy.

The price board listed 20 varieties of fishes and crabs but today only rohu, bhakur, mirkali, prawn (three sizes), marine crab, Chilika crab, lobster, pomfret and hilsa were available. The priced ranged from Rs 80 to Rs 1,300 per kilogram.

Fisheries director P. Krishnamohan said: “Members of fisheries co-operatives in and around Chilika will provide fish and crabs to the outlet. Since everything will be fresh it has been named Chilika Fresh. We are happy with the response we have got.”

Odisha State Fishermen Co-operative Federation (Fishfed) managing director Umesh Chandra Mohanty, however, said availability of land could be an issue for the proposed outlets. “We are going to add more fish varieties,” he said.