Bhubaneswar: The fisheries and animal resource department on Wednesday threw open 12 Chilika Fresh outlets and 10 fish-on-wheel trucks in the city.
The new kiosks, meant to sell fishes at reasonable prices, were opened at Kharavela Nagar, Rasulgarh, Sailashree Vihar, near Sum Hospital, Dumduma, Lakshmi Sagar, Mancheswar, VSS Nagar, Khandagiri, Nakagate, Kalinga Nagar, Pokhariput and Patia. Authorities have planned to open 14 more such outlets in the city by December.
The fish-on-wheel trucks were also launched, wherein fish items - mainly the cooked ones - will be available at 10 places of the city. These trucks will move in the city from 9am to 10pm. Although the authorities are yet to decide on where to station the trucks, sources said it would be the busy market places.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the venture from the Chilika Fresh kiosk at Kharavela Nagar on Wednesday morning. "It is a good move to open more such outlets in the city. This will not only provide us fishes at reasonable prices, but also help us get fresh fishes in an hygienic manner," said Kharavela Nagar resident Anita Mohanty.
The city now has 15 Chilika Fresh outlets. The state government had set up first such kiosk at Siripur in 2014 followed by two others at Nayapalli and Saheed Nagar in following years.
The outlets will offer you a range of fishes to buy, including rohi, bhakura, kantala, Indian salmon, pomfret, crab, prawns and many more. This time, the department has also added a new "ready to eat" and "ready to cook" options in the menu.
This will provide an option of either get the raw fish or cooked one from the outlets.
Chilika Fresh is a joint initiative of the government and Falcon Marines. There is a plan to open 100 such outlets in the next few years in Cuttack, Berhampur, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Bhadrak, Jeypore, Baripada and Bhawanipatna.
"The aim here is to give fresh fishes to consumers at a reasonable price. Besides, fishermen will also get greater benefit from the outlets since they will be selling the fishes straight to us at a fixed market price. Our motive is to deliver fresh and quality fishes to the consumers," said Falcon chairman-cum-managing director Tara Pattnaik.
