Koyambedu market turns mosquito breeder

Cleared

Chennai: The Koyambedu Wholesale Market Complex, when it opened more than two decades ago, won praise for the way it was designed with properly earmarked spaces for trade in flowers, fruits and vegetables and plots for parking. Now, with little or no maintenance, it is a massive mosquito breeding ground with rainwater stagnating in huge pools and unsold flower waste dumped in storm water drains.

The three-acre Open Space Reservation (OSR) plot and parking lot are also filled with water. Rainwater stagnates at the entrance too. Many traders, sources in the market which accommodates 470 flower shops big and small, are guilty of indiscriminate dumping.

M N Sreenivasan, a resident of Vanagaram near Koyambedu, said the situation was similar to the one at Kothawalchavadi in Parry’s, where the erstwhile market was shifted because the hapazardly located shops were perceived to be too congested. The unregulated trade too was cited as a reason. Now, the chaos that the new market has descended into is making many wonder if the shift to the new facility, built at an enormous cost, is worthwile, he added.

Koyembedu Wholesale Flower Traders Association secretary S Mookaiah said the blockage was a major issue leading to water stagnation. “We have told traders not to dump flowers into the storm water drains,” he said.

A senior member of the market management committee said notices had been issued to six shops found guilty of the offence. “The traders who are found violating the norms will lose the licences for their shops. We are clearing the storm water drains every week,” he added.


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