Starting Monday, APMC to down shutters for a week

The Navi Mumbai market complex becomes hotspot with 125 cases last week

All five markets of the Mumbai Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) located in Vashi will be closed for a week, starting from May 11. The closure has been necessitated due to the sudden rise in positive cases of Covid-19 in Navi Mumbai. Last week, around 125 positive cases were reported from the wholesale market complex alone.

The total positive cases under the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) jurisdiction reached 527 on Friday. But the total number of cases in Navi Mumbai, including Panvel City and taluka, have crossed 700.

However, the supply of essential commodities like fruits, vegetables, onion and potato is unlikely to be affected, as trucks laden with these commodities will continue to arrive and be directly diverted to Mumbai and other places.

There was a storm on social media following the sudden rise in positive cases, with the APMC emerging the hotspot of Navi Mumbai. Although the NMCC administration had advocated shutting down the market, it was kept operational to continue the supply of essentials to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Sanjay Pansare, director, fruit market, said that traders’ associations had written to the secretary of the APMC to close the market for ten days to stop cases from multiplying.

The decision to temporarily close the market was taken after a meeting held at APMC headquarters in Navi Mumbai on Friday morning. The meeting was attended by Anup Kumar, secretary, state marketing department, Shivaji Daund, commissioner of Konkan division, civic chief, DCP zone 1, traders, porters, Mathadi workers (headloaders), security guards and local representative. “All five markets, spices, fruits, vegetables, grain and onion-potato markets will be closed for a week,” said A B Misal, municipal commissioner, NMMC. After Saturday operations, the market would be closed until the following Sunday, he said.