espite the presence of uzhavar santhais, super markets and departmental stores, the bi-weekly santhai at Koranguchavadi in the heart of Salem city continues to enjoy good patronage from the consumers.
The santhai meets from dawn till late evening hours on Sundays and Tuesdays for the past many decades. The popularity of this bi-weekly market could be gauged from the fact that the entire Koranguchavadi area, that vehicular traffic gets choked frequently on the main road, particularly during the Sunday evenings.
This santhai has been attracting a large number of consumers not only from various parts of the city but also from faraway places such as Omalur, Salem Steel Plant Road, Taramangalam etc in the wake of sale of all materials, popularly known as one-stop shop. A large number of farmers of Omalur, Kadayampatti, Mecheri and Mettur and the surrounding villages bring their agricultural produce to this market regularly.
This market supplies all consumer goods under one roof on both the days. Apart from vegetables, temporary shops marketing grocery, utensils, iron wares, pots, furniture, eatables are found in abundance on the small maidan in the residential locality of Sastri Nagar and also on the Koranguchavadi main road.
The presence of weekly santhai on two days in a week well within the Corporation limits only testifies the convenience and the comfort it has been providing to the consumers.
Initially, the shops surfaced only on the little ground. With many residential localities springing up in the vicinity of Koranguchavadi, widening of the main road and the laying of Bengaluru by-pass road etc, has led to the expansion of the santhai in the last one decade.
With the santhai offering a higher profitability, it has been providing attractive marketing avenues for farmers, other merchants, grocers. One of the major reasons for the success of this market, despite the presence of four Uzhavar Santhais in the Corporation limits, is the price factor.
The price of many vegetables and other items are as cheap as in Uzhavar Santhai, says M. Sivakami, a housewife of Salem Steel Plant road, a regular visitor to this market.
Despite its popularity, the market functions with poor infrastructure. It does not have proper parking area nor concrete shops. Shops function on the roadsides haphazardly.
One of the main complaints of the citizens of the city is the presence of temporary shops on both sides of this narrow and busy road for two full days in a week. It affects the free flow of traffic, says S. Ravikumar, an auto driver attached to Koranguchavadi auto stand.
A cross-section of the regular customers complain that the santhai lacks basic facilities. Besides, the shops are not orderly, causing much inconvenience to the people.
The same views are echoed by the people running permanent shops in Koranguchavadi area. The corporation and the traffic police authorities should regulate the functioning of these shops.
Much space lies idle in the ground in Sastri Nagar and the farmers should be asked to put the stalls there, without occupying the space on the road sides, says K. Ravi, a college student of Sankar Nagar.
He pleads for presence of police to regulate vehicular traffic on both the days at this point.
The weekly market in the Old Suramangalam, also in the corporation limits, is another market popular among the consumers. This market meets on Thursdays. Unlike the Koranguchavadi market, this santhai meets in an open earmarked for this purpose when Suramangalam was still a municipality.
This market, too, has been attracting a good number of farmers and consumers from in and around the city.
