Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa opened the Peliyagoda new Manning Market complex today.
The new Manning Market will feature 1,192 shops, a large parking lot, restrooms for staff, medical facilities, banks, restaurants, a cool room, hotels among other facilities.
The then government set up the Colombo Fish Wholesale Complex in Peliyagoda in 2011 as one of the solutions to the heavy traffic congestion in the city and for several other purposes including the convenience of the people, on the instructions of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development at the time.
Preliminary plans were made to relocate the Colombo Vegetable Market to Peliyagoda at the same time as the fish wholesale market was being shifted to Peliyagoda.
According to the original plans, construction of the Manning market began in 2013.
Not only the wholesale trade of fish and vegetables but also the wholesale supply of dried food and building materials in Pettah will be shifted to Peliyagoda in the future.
The Peliyagoda Exchange connects highways to all parts of the country, making it easy to transport these goods to and from Colombo. Therefore, this will have a major effect on reducing traffic congestion in Colombo city and other roads.
About 600 vehicles can be accommodated at the Manning market in Peliyagoda.
At the new complex traders will be able to bring vegetable lorries to every shop up to the third floor of the four-storey building. The Manning market, which was limited to 2 acres in Colombo has been converted into a fully-fledged wholesale mall spread over 13.5 acres. The total cost of this project is 6.9 billion rupees.