Kochi: Visiting Ernakulam Market gave a special feel to the city dwellers decades back when the city was calm and quiet with little activities taking place around.
Vegetables to the market were transported in country boats from nearby villages like Thalayolaparambu, Alappuzha, Vaikom, Paravur to the place which is also Menaka market due to its nearness to erstwhile Menaka market.
Bullock carts were another mode of transportation for the farmers to transport their produce. Hand pulled carts were used to carry articles like food grains to short distances on road. Very few heavy vehicles came to the market bringing food grains, pulses and other such articles from other states.
There were only a few shops and limited shoppers as resources were limited.
It was an era worth revisiting that would make one nostalgic.
Things changed gradually with unauthorized vendors setting up their shops along the sides of the navigable canal which later became a dumping ground.
Vegetables started coming from other states in heavy lorries as local production dwindled due to urban migration.
Country boats, bullock carts, hand held trollelies gave way to mini lorries, three wheeled motorized carts and the likes.
Now, the over half a century old thatched shops, rebuilt in 1967 after a fire, have been razed to the ground to set up a concrete three storey building to house the shops being built at a cost of Rs 100 Crore under Cochin Smart Mission Ltd (CSML).
First two floors will go to the traditional traders while the third floor will be retained by the Kochi Corporation. Also a multilevel car parking facility is highlighted as the key feature of the market.
As it said change is constant, nothing is permanent like the mindset of the governments.
