After finding no takers for 20 booths at the modern air-conditioned fish, meat and poultry product market in Sector 41C on January 13, the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) is all set to auction the booth once again.
The agenda for the auction will be placed in the finance and contract committee (F&CC) meeting, which is scheduled to be held on Monday.
In the auction held on January 13, the MC did not find any takers for booths, but managed to sell chill room for Rs 18,500 per month against the reserve price of Rs 16,500. The committee will also cancel the auction of chill room as it is meant for entire market.
The seven bidders, who participated in the auction, said the rent of the booths was very high that led to the auction's failure. The civic body had fixed a reserve price of Rs 32,000 per shop per month.
According to the guidelines, if the auction fails again, the MC will have to slash the reserve price. Subhash Chawla, a member of the committee, said they were hopeful that this time they would be able to rent out the shops.
On the other hand, this will be the fourth attempt of the civic body in the past five years to lease out the booths.
There are a total of 32 booths in the fish market. However, the officials decided to auction only 20 of these booths in the first phase.
On the other hand, this will be the fourth attempt of the civic body in the past five years to lease out the booths.
There are a total of 32 booths in the fish market. However, the officials decided to auction only 20 of these booths in the first phase.
Surender Kumar, one of the bidders, said: "Why will people take shops on such a huge rent when the market is not even established? Moreover, the MC has forbidden slaughter in the shops. Also, the shops are being leased for a period of three years, and by the time the market is established, we will have to look for other shops."
On November 28 last year, taking serious note of the civic body's disregard towards the non-operational fish market, the Punjab and Haryana high court had issued contempt of court notices to the UT home secretary as well as the municipal commissioner.
The court had come down heavily on the authorities for adopting lackadaisical attitude. The UT administration constructed the market and handed it over to the civic body in 2009 for leasing out the booths. The municipal corporation attempted two auctions in 2010 but to no avail.