News
By 2020, a massive 24-hour market complex
The Manning Market relocation programme is now underway with the awarding of the contract for the Rs. 5 billion-plus project.
Coming up: The new-look Manning market. Pix by Indika Handuwala
Land-filling and sitework had commenced earlier. The contract was awarded for the construction of the buildings, set to be completed by 2020.
The new market complex, at Peliyagoda, will be convenient for both traders and consumers, Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development Additional Secretary (Urban Development) Anjalie Devaraja said.
The market, which currently occupies two acres, will be relocated in a plot of 25 acres.
Engineer Devaraja said that the new location will have ample parking space and facilities for traders to have their vegetables unloaded even close to first-floor shops.
There will be banking facilities with ATM machines, four restaurants, canteens for drivers, and parking spaces for lorries in addition to parking space for more than 200 or more cars and vans. The complex will be designed so that it could expand in the future, Ms Devaraja said.
The market, which will be solar-powered, will be divided into zones allocated for vegetables, fruits, fish and meat. Another zone will hold frozen and refrigerated foods.
There will be space for 1,200 vendors or more, and their prices will be on digital display.
The present day Manning market
The market will be a 24-hour operation with restaurants and banks also operating round the clock, Ms. Devaraja said.
Four treatment plans will be set up to purify waste water from the stalls in the new market, while left-over vegetable and waste will be sorted out at a yard and transported for disposal on a daily basis.
Ms. Devaraja said that each of the shops had been designed according to vendor requirements such as water supply, freezer facilities and other needs.
The road network around the market area will be improved and a jogging track will be set up around the complex.
The existing two-acre site will be used for the multimodal transport hub coming up in the Pettah area.
