Patiala, September 2: The new state-of-the- art and Punjab’s first air-conditioned vegetable market on the outskirts of the city on the Sanaur road will have five pavements for farmers in its first phase of construction which will take off immediately after its inauguration by the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on September 17.

The new air-conditioned ‘subzi mandi’ will not only be a boon for farmers and will effect a change in the existing and age-old vegetable marketing style but will also benefit consumers who will have the option of lapping up almost farm fresh vegetables without paying any extra charges. Based on European pattern, the new vegetable market, it is learnt, is the first of its kind in Punjab as it will be the only air-conditioned vegetable market in the state. It is being built at a cost of Rs 22 crore. The mandi is being developed at the initiative of the Punjab Mandi Board after the Chief Minister had shown his keen interest to provide a better and world class vegetable buying-selling experience and platform to both farmers and consumers.

The Mandi Board officials disclosed that the vegetable market would have a two-storied building and would be one of the most sophisticated mandis in Punjab. “We are going to set up at least five huge pavements in the first phase of its construction. The mandi would be completed within a period of one and a half years. The shops would be given out on auction basis,” said a Mandi Board official. The air-conditioned storage facility in the market, however, would be provided in the second phase even as the entire construction of the market would get completed within a period of one and a half years.

Once the mandi turned operational, congestion in the Raghomajra area of the town, where the existing mandi was located, would get reduced considerably and hence, residents would face less degree of inconvenience as flow of traders, farmers and consumers would be diverted to the Sanaur road. The proposal to shift the mandi out of Raghomajra was mooted a long time back but due to certain technicalities the proposal could not be implemented. Besides, “technical problems”, a section of commission agents were said to be not in favour of moving to the new site.

Things, however, started moving ahead when the SAD-BJP alliance came to power and the government decided to shift the mandi out of the city.