Bhubaneswar, Jan. 27: Choose your daily dose of fruits from the comfortable environs of an AC mart.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation will shortly float a tender for the construction of a four-storey fruit market complex at Unit-II. The corporation has asked a private agency that is preparing the master plan to submit the revised project report within next week.

Sources in the civic body said that though a project report had been submitted to the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), it had not been approved as it lacked details of parking facilities at the proposed fruit market complex.

The civic body has also asked the private agency to submit the estimate for the proposed fruit complex within next week.

“We will submit the project report and estimation after which we will float a tender by February 15. The construction of the fruit complex will be completed within one year,” said a senior corporation officer.

The four-storey complex will accommodate more than 70 kiosks. An underground parking facility will ease traffic in the area. The proposed complex will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 1 crore. The market will have two entrances, one from the Market Building side and the other from Rajpath.

“The proposed market complex will either be fully air-conditioned or properly ventilated so that the fruits remain fresh,” said a senior corporation officer.

The project, aimed at providing permanent shops to the fruit vendors of Unit-II, has been in the pipeline since 1998 when the civic body had tried to rehabilitate the vendors with kiosks made of tin. But as the fruits rotted in high temperature inside the kiosks, the vendors had to face massive losses.

Sources in the corporation said 78 vendors had deposited an amount of Rs 43,000 with the civic body to get allotment of permanent shops in 1998. Lack of coordination between the general administration department and the corporation had resulted in inordinate delay for allotment of land for the complex.

The wait of the fruit vendors having a permanent shop ended last year with the general administration department allotting the land in favour of the corporation in August.

“It has been a wait for nearly 16 years to get a permanent shop to run our business. We had deposited Rs 12.3 lakh with the civic body as our share for the land long ago. The authorities should expedite the process for construction of the market complex,” said Ramesh Sahu, a fruit vendor in the area.

Fruity Facts

Market to be built at cost of Rs 1 crore

To accommodate more than 70 fruit vendors

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation will float tender by February 15

78 vendors deposited Rs 43,000 with civic body in 1998 for allotment of
permanent shops

General administration department handed over land to BMC in August last year

Daily fruit business in city ranges between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 25 lakh

City requires around 30 tonnes of fruits every day