TN’s wholesale market shut down
CHENNAI: Koyambedu, one of the country’s largest perishable fruit and vegetable wholesale market with over 3000 shops was shut down on Monday after at least 300 of the 527 new cases reported in Tamil Nadu on Monday were linked to it, making it one of the biggest hot spots in the state.
“We are shutting [Koyambedu] down temporarily till further orders,” a senior official from the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) who did not wish to be named, told Hindustan Times. “We are going to take those people who work there to a quarantine facility. They will be tested, and those found positive will be treated as per standard protocol.” The market premises will be disinfected over the next two days, officials said. The market was already running at a decreased capacity on account of the lockdown, which was recently extended to May 17. The first case linked to the Koyambedu cluster emerged on April 19.
The sudden shutdown will have an effect on the supplyin the city of 10.5 million people, wholesalers said. “The officials came here at around 4 pm and ordered the market’s closure without any warning whatsoever. Produce valued at ₹5 crore is stuck inside the market and 250 trucks with ₹10 crore worth of vegetables are on their way to Koyambedu. This is not a small roadside operation that we can simply push our carts back home,” said GD Rajasekaran, president, Koyambedu Periyar
Market Association.
Koyambedu spread over 295 acres, is one of the largest vegetable, flower and fruit market complexes in India. It houses more than 1000 wholesalers and 2000 retail shops. In non-pandemic times, Koyambedu receives nearly 1,500 truckloads of horticultural produce and at least 100,000 visitors, daily. During the lockdown, around 400 trucks visited the market daily.
Severalwho worked at the market have returned to their villages across Chennai, Kancheepuram, Cuddalore, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu. “We don’t know how many people have returned. At present, we have about 600 people who we are going to send to quarantine,” the CMDA official said added.
The Koyambedu cluster had so far recorded at least 300 cases, including Monday’s cases reported from Villipuram (49) and Perambalur (25). Officials surmise that the number of contacts who will need to be traced would be several times those traced in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat religious conference held in New Delhi in March, from which over 1000 attendees had returned to the state.
CMDA officials said that they had urged traders at Koyambedu to move to another location within the city, as traders in like Trichy and Tirunelveli had done . “It is a private trade so unless they come forward and cooperate we could not do anything. ,” one official said. However, wholesalers claimed that there was no communication from the government, let alone alternative arrangements.