Patuli: The government on Wednesday inaugurated a bazaar on a water body in Patuli with the promise to train traders against littering the water body.

The underlying message: traders will lose business if people stop visiting the market because the lake is filled with garbage and it stinks.

"Traders will be trained regularly on ways to keep the water body clean. Plastic bags won't be allowed," a CMDA executive engineer said.

The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority is the executing agency of the floating market.

Shopkeepers have been told not to throw waste into the water. Nets will be used to fish out vegetable peel, fish scales and other waste from the water, the engineer said.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the floating market via videoconferencing. The market aims to rehabilitate shopkeepers of the Baishnabghata-Patuli market that is being demolished for the widening of the Bypass.

At least 114 boats double as shops in the market. Most boats will have two shops selling vegetables, fruits, flowers, fish, and meat and poultry.

Shoppers can approach the boats through wooden walkways on stilts.

"The boats have come from Hooghly's Balagarh," urban development secretary Onkar Singh Meena told Metro.

Balagarh and Guptipara in Hooghly and Kakdwip in South 24-Parganas are famous for their boat-manufacturing units.

Tultul Roy, a vegetable seller, had a spread of cauliflower, tomatoes, brinjals and spinach in the afternoon.

"My shop in the earlier market was more than 20 years old. The new setting is nice. I hope the business is good," Roy, whose family of four is dependent on the shop, said.

Incense sticks and flowers were seen on almost every boat on Wednesday. Manoj Thakur, a priest, had already done some 20 pujas by 2pm. "Everyone wants a good start to their business," Thakur said, jumping from one boat to another.

He earned anything between Rs 20 and Rs 30 from each puja.

The lake has several apartments and housing complexes along its banks.

Debika Hore, 60, who lives in one of them, was at the market on the first day.

"We were initially opposed to the project because we thought the water body will be filled up for building a market," Hore, who was part of residents' groups that had met minister Firhad Hakim on the matter, said. "We are extremely happy with this unique market."

Two aerators, devices that collect oxygen from the air and mix it with water, have been installed in the lake. "It will prevent the water from stinking and allow aquatic life to survive," the engineer said.

The market is the brainchild of urban development minister Hakim, Arup Chakraborty, the councillor of Ward 110, said.

"I got the idea after seeing a floating market in Bangkok in 2014," Hakim said.

The market will remain open from 6am to 9pm daily with a break in the afternoon.