Wholesale traders in onion, banana, jaggery and fruits,
currently functioning around Gandhi Market in the city, could soon be
asked to shift to G.Corner grounds along the Tiruchi-Chennai bypass road
in the city soon if the corporation managed to give shape to its
proposal.

The Corporation Council on Wednesday
approved a proposal to shift the ‘vengayya mandi,’ ‘vazhakai mandi,’
‘vellamandi’ and the ‘pazha mandi’ to G.Corner grounds where the civic
body owns about five acres of land. However, the council’s nod came with
a rider as it asked the officials to implement the decision in
consultation with the traders concerned.

The move comes in the wake of a long-pending proposal to shift the wholesale sections to the outskirts of the city.

Over
the past two decades, sporadic efforts were made to identify a suitable
location for shifting the wholesale traders, all of whom occupy the
peripheries of Gandhi Market, making the area a major traffic
bottleneck.

But the efforts came a cropper and a
couple of years ago, a move to acquire the Aavin lands at Ariyamangalam
for the purpose, was struck down by the Madurai Bench of the High Court
of Madras.

An official resolution approved by the
council pointed out that Gandhi Market, established around 70 years ago,
was facing heavy congestion. Road traffic around the market often came
to a standstill as the wholesale mandis were all situated around the
market.

A slaughter house has been established at
G.Corner where 6.42 acres of land was handed over to the corporation in
2000 by the district administration.

The remaining
five acres was available for relocating the mandis. Being close to the
highway, the site would be ideally suited for the traders to carry on
their business without any hindrance to traffic. The corporation would
soon clean the grounds to enable the shifting of the shops, the
resolution said.

Speaking on the subject, M.Mohamed
Mustafa, MDMK, wondered whether five acres would be adequate to
accommodate all the shops. A few other councillors pointed out that some
of the wholesale traders, such as the onion traders, have acquired own
lands. The councillors asked the officials to take the traders into
confidence before implementing the decision.