Anantnag: The satellite fruit market in Bijbehara area of Anantnag district touted to be one of the largest in the country is still not functional ever since its foundation stone was laid in 2013.
The then National Conference (NC) led coalition government had identified around 440 Kanals of land in Jablipora area of Bijbehara for establishment of the satellite fruit market with a total cost of around Rs 35 crore.
Officials said that the market was aimed at “generating various economic activities for the locals particularly the fruit traders and growers”.
“The market is expected to have 600 shops. Besides markets, yards, weighing bridge, administrative block, bank, post office, cold storage, Kissan Ghar, cable network, high-mast lights were also in the pipeline,” a source in the Planning and Marketing Wing of the Horticulture department told Kashmir Reader.
Impressed with the proposal, farmers and traders, who otherwise are dependent on fruit markets located in Shopian or Anantnag also chipped in with a contribution of Rs 1 lakh each with the hope that the market once open will end their woes.
“More than a thousand farmers and traders paid this money, with the hope that we will have our own space to conduct business,” said a fruit grower, Arshid Khan. He is a fruit trader as well and has paid Rs 2 lakh for an office and a stall in the Mandi.
Having received the money, the Horticulture department got a foundation stone laid by the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the work was handed over to NABARD.
“Seven years have gone by and more than three other fruit Mandis have come up in south Kashmir. But this one has been facing an inordinate delay. We still remain dependent on either the Mandis in Shopian or in Anantnag,” Ghulam Hassan, a fruit grower from Kanelwan area of Bijbehara said.
Traders and fruit growers rue the slow pace of work and inefficiency of the department in handling the construction of the satellite market. “The shops have been constructed but the offices remain pending and other things that were promised to us are also yet to be constructed,” traders and growers added.
They said that stalls are yet to be allotted even to the people who have paid money upfront for the construction of the Mandi.
Sources in the P&M division said that the floods of 2014 acted as a major deterrent and delayed works by a substantial amount of time. “Besides, the funding on the project has not been as expected. Yes, it should have been completed long back but it is almost complete now,” said the sources.
Director Planning and Marketing wing, Imam Din said that work has been paced up during his tenure.
“We are carrying out the allotment process and are hoping to start the complex in a month or two, so that the traders and growers can carry out some business at the Mandi even during this fruit season as well,” Din told Kashmir Reader.

Suhail A Shah