Bhubaneswar: City authority has completed preparatory activities to open the fruit market at Unit 2 Market area. The market constructed by Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is considered as city’s first organised marketplace for fruit vending.
Under BMC’s inclusive development strategy the roadside vendors were chalked out where selected vendors were promised to be given the facility.
Through a lottery process on 22nd December 2020 the identified vendors got their shop numbers. Due to pandemic, the process of allotment was delayed.
Such welfare steps are taken by BMC to encourage vendors as well as mainstreaming them with the social milieu, told Mayor Sulochana Das. We are also in search of other opportunities where more vendors could be benefited and small assistance has been given to street vendors during the pandemic, she added.
The unique market will accommodate 78 vendors in a G+2 (ground floor, first floor and second floor) with separate shops. Each shop is of equal size with 72 sq. feet ( 9x 8 ). The BMC has its approved dimension for signboard and the authority will do the common area management like parking space, water, sanitation and toilet facilities, informed Pramod Kumar Prusty, the Deputy Commissioner.
Allotted vendors will be charged a monthly rent of Rs 35.00 per sq. feet where the charge of electricity and other fittings will be from their own. A refundable security deposit of rupees four lakh is mandatory for each allottee.
A committee will be formed from among the vendors for the day-to-day management and hassle-free business in the market.
Ms Kalinga