Nanda inaugurates the Benfish outlet at Pradhannagar as Mani Thapa looks (right) on. A Telegraph picture

Siliguri, Dec. 19: The West Bengal State Fishermen’s Cooperative Federation Ltd, better known as Benfish, will be opening as many as 100 outlets in north Bengal by the end of March and has set a target of Rs 100 crore in sales.

Announcing this while inaugurating the first two centres here today, fisheries minister Kiranmoy Nanda said the aim was to make available quality Benfish products at reasonable prices to the people of the region.

“The Benfish mobile vans and stalls in Calcutta have proved very popular. A variety of fish products at low cost have made it a success at the Book Fair and at the Pragati Maidan in Delhi. We now want to make the products available in the six districts of north Bengal,” Nanda said.

Siliguri and its surrounding areas will have 40 outlets. The two that opened today are located near Margaret School in Pradhannagar and on Hill Cart Road opposite Heritage Hotel.

“A central kitchen and a processing and ice plant will be located at Regulated Market Complex at Malaguri here and will have the same ISO 9001 hygienic procedure standards as the central kitchen in Calcutta,” the minister said.

Till now, the variety of mouth-watering fish delicacies was available here in rarely-seen mobile vans. “The outlets will come as a much-needed appeasement for the fish-loving palates of the people here,” said Anup Basu, one of the distributors.

But what has become a cause of concern is the decrease in the number of several species of river fish in north Bengal. “We are conducting a survey in collaboration with the central government to get data on some of the species whose numbers have come down over the last four or five years,” the minister said.

Nanda also said a unit for ornamental fish project will be set up. “Talks are on with Himul for the transfer of their unused land,” he said.