Maintenance fee off, Koyambedu market in tatters

CHENNAI:Dirty walls, leaking roofs, ugly toilets, potholed roads and stray animals. All these welcome customers to Asia’s largest perishable goods market in Koyambedu, thanks to the waiver of maintenance fee by the previous DMK government. The market is now in tatters as it has only limited means to conduct even routine maintenance works.Traders told Express on Monday that infrastructure facilities at the market started getting deteriorated after the DMK regime waived the Re 1 per square ft maintenance fee.While traders blame the authorities of doing nothing to improve the market, officials say the market is starved of funds after the waiver of fee. “Without revenue, how can we maintain the market?” they asked.An official, who wished not to be named, said that currently the maintenance is being done with the funds collected from the leased toilets as well as from the cess collected from trucks supplying the goods. Koyambedu Wholesale Banana Traders’ Association Secretary T Ramaraja Pandian told Express that lack of maintenance fee may be one of the reasons for the failure of infrastructure but then officials are also to be blamed for illegal trading being carried out by encroachers. “If the government promises to take appropriate action against the encroachers and maintain the market, then traders won’t have any problem in paying maintenance fee. I assure you they will pay the fee,” Pandian said.He said the market, which is supposed to be Asia’s largest, hasn’t been white-washed ever since it has been set up. Now we have cows and buffaloes also as visitors,” he rued.Even the toilets in the ma-rket, which are leased out, are in a sorry state as they have not been renovated and there is no compound wall to regulate the encroachers and stray animals. Some of the roofs are leaking, complained traders.The roads are also in a bad shape and the previous government had sanctioned Rs 33 crore just before the elections to repair them. “Currently, the tender process is on and once it is finished, the roads will be laid,” said a Marketing Management Committee source.Now with the rainy season ahead, the market is facing the threat of being waterlogged as the ongoing Metro Rail work may affect the flow of water. Traders said storm water drains are in a pathetic state and there is an urgent need to renovate them. “If the renovation is not possible, at least some remedial action should be taken so that the business can go on during the rains also,” the sources added.