“MALU’ ‘MALU’ 3-wheeler to deliver fish at your doorstep
View(s):Sri Lankan urban and rural consumers can soon look forward to delivery of fresh fish at their doorstep by mobile fish mongers using modified three wheelers.
Sifang Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Brown & Company PLC, has introduced specially designed three wheelers to sell and transport of fish, a company spokesperson said.
The’ MALU’ ‘MALU’ mobile fish three wheeler has been designed and assembled by Brown & Company PLC with the chassis and engines being made by India’s BG Pace Company with minimal smoke emissions, he added.
The vehicle is custom designed to keep the insulated ice box, weighing balance, fish cutting equipment and automatic drainage of water.
The interior of the three wheeler truck is fibre glass and water proofed and the 90 cubic meter back area was designed to suit the properly packing of fish. It is fitted with a musical horn to make it more familiar to the people.
The vehicle can transport 800 to 900 kg of fish at a time and comes with a fish counter. The vehicle can also be used to sell fish products like fish cutlets, boiled or fried fish which are in demand in towns and cities.
In 2004, a similar effort by the Fisheries Ministry to implement a scheme to market quality fish at affordable prices using 1000 three wheelers failed.
The Ministry has allocated a sum of around Rs. 500 million for the programme, a senior official of the ministry said adding that they had been disappointed with the fish mongers for not coming forward to use the vehicle to their advantage.
However, the Sifang Lanka spokesperson said they were optimistic in the new venture with a new outlook to mobile fish sellers who are currently using motor cycles or bicycles to deliver fish to the doorstep of consumers.
The company can manufacture upto 200 units per month.
The official pointed out although their target is to attract small and medium scale fish traders while fish ‘mudalalis’ who operate fish stalls in the island can deploy one or two persons to deliver fish to customers at their houses with the ’ MALU’ ‘MALU’ three wheelers.
This scheme will create a large number of direct job opportunities apart from a large number of indirect employment for the people, especially those who are engaged in the fisheries sector, he said.