Mangoes arrive at Mechhua wholesale fruit market

The government has cleared a proposal to acquire 150 acres in Howrah where the Mechhua wholesale fruit market and four other city markets will be shifted.

The proposal for the relocation of Mechhua wholesale fruit market, Koley Market, Natun Bazar and the vegetable section of New Market was submitted by Howrah Improvement Trust (HIT).

The plot in Ankurhati, off Kona Expressway, will be acquired by the land and land reforms department, but the cost will be borne by the Calcutta Fruit and Vegetable Merchants Society.

“If we get the land even by the middle of 2009, we can shift the wholesale fruit market from Mechhua to Ankurhati by 2012. The site is close to the proposed truck terminal,” said society president Mohammad Sohrub, also a Rashtriya Janata Dal legislator.

“We informed HIT in April that the Ankurhati plot could be acquired. But we will proceed only after half the land cost is paid,” said land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah.

HIT chairman Swadesh Chakraborty said wholesale markets should be removed from both sides of the Hooghly to facilitate urban makeover. “I am happy the merchants themselves have come forward with the proposal to shift their business,” said Chakraborty.

“A space crunch is prompting us to consider shifting base. The market is steadily growing but we are not being able to handle enough items because of several factors, including traffic curbs,” pointed out Sohrub.

The Mechhua market, spread across 10 acres, handles 4.2 lakh tonnes of fruit a year. The annual transaction crosses Rs 630 crore.

“For shifting the fruit market alone, we require 50 acres. We bought 30 bighas in Ankurhati in 2006. But as a group of real estate brokers started raising the price of land, we approached Chakraborty for help,” said Sohrub.