Spread over five-plus acre and sandwiched between Raja Street and Big Bazaar Street is the city’s biggest vegetable market – Thyagi Kumaran Market. Or, popularly T.K. Market.
The Coimbatore Corporation established the market sometime in the 1930s when it was a municipality under the chairmanship of C.S. Rathinasabapathy Mudaliar. “It is perhaps the first market that a local body established to improve its revenue,” says city’s chronicler Rajesh Govindarajulu.
In the last 90 years, the area around the market underwent change and development. But not the market.
Vegetable vendors continue to function more or less out of the age-old buildings with very little amenities. “To date, the vendors, headload workers, and drivers do not have access to clean drinking water as the Corporation is yet to supply water,” rues M. Rajendran, president, Coimbatore T.K. Market Anaithu Motha Vyabarigal Sangam (a traders’ association).
The Corporation’s failure to supply potable water means that at least 1,000 traders, hundreds of headload workers, and drivers are forced to depend on water sold in cans, say traders.
Next is the concern about access to toilet. At the western exit of the market, en route Plague Mariamman Temple, is a Coimbatore Corporation-run pay-and-use toilet complex. “The Corporation should improve the hygiene in the toilet complex and also build more as the number of toilets is insufficient given the number of people who do business in the market,” says S. Sirajudeen, a driver of a small goods carrier.
Removal of vegetable waste is the next issue. The Corporation has been doing a good job but it needs to do more.
At present the civic body cleans the market and also its surroundings but it is only once a day. By the time the Corporation’s conservancy workers clean the market, dump the waste in bins and replace the filled-in bins with empty ones, as much waste as they have cleared gets generated. The market generates around eight tonnes waste a day.
The Corporation will, therefore, do well to clean the market twice a day – in the morning and evening, the traders demand.
On the western side of the market is what the traders call K.K. Block. It is here that almost all the lorries and small goods carriers that carry vegetables to and from the market are parked. But encroachments by shopkeepers have reduced the carriageway, causing traffic congestion, allege the drivers.
“Drivers of 100 to 150 vehicles who take vegetables to the market and carry the goods from the market to various parts of the city have a harrowing time every day because of the encroachments. The carriageway gets further reduced when they too park their vehicles,” complains P. Manikandan, a driver.
The encroachments have also inconvenienced lorry drivers like S. Rajamanickam, who has transported onions from Maharashtra. “I'm forced to park the lorry for at least 12 hours near the market.
The unloading takes time. Even after the unloading, I cannot leave until the restriction on lorry movement is lifted. I, therefore, end up spending up to 12 hours at the market.”
Inside the market, buyers have hardly any space to stand and buy vegetables or move around because the number of vendors to pay toll to the market contractor match the vendors who have taken on rent the Corporation’s shops.
Mr. Rajendran says, “There are at least 400 vendors who pay toll daily to the contractor to run their business. They spread their wares on the ground – thara kadai – to carry on their business.”
The absence of space to walk around to buy vegetables is felt more during rains when the whole place turns slushy. “Stepping into the market is a nightmare when it rains.
The vegetable waste dumped on the ground and the slush turn the ground slippery,” complains Keshaw Kumar Dubey, a regular visitor to the market.
And, the rainwater does not flow out because the drain is choked. The Corporation should clean the drains on a regular basis and if possible place covering slabs because the waste invariably ends up in the drain,” says tomato vendor V. Manikandan.
The vendors say they want the Corporation to improve the amenities in the short term and look at building a new market after demolishing the existing structure in the long term.
Coimbatore Corporation officials say the civic body has attempted to build a new market a few years ago but the proposal did not move forward for various reasons. As for the traders’ grievance, the civic body is ready to redress.