With Secretariat Project Shelved, Livelihoods Return To Normal At Pattinapakkam Fish Market

Chennai’s Pattinapakkam loop road was buzzing and teeming with fresh fish sale on this Saturday (Sept 19) evening. This writer travelled from the Lighthouse Point, all along the beach loop road to Santhome exit.  Every rickety wooden shelf stacked with the best sea catch, the vendors beaming, expecting not just the Saturday evening bumper sale but something more …relief that their livelihood was not about to be struck down by the Tamil Nadu government’s New Secretariat building plan. Saturday evenings are eagerly awaited by the vendors and buyers. Most families plan for the Sunday special lunch with fish entrees in the starring role.  As we drive down, on the right, eateries (tin and bamboo sheds) that are lit up, invite the foodie with the overpowering smell of fried fish and “meen kuzhambu” (fish curry) to go with mounds of hot rice. But wait, what is this brand new structure that draws attention? It is the almost completed snazzily designed fish market, built to enable sale and display, water vents to quickly drain…a clean, comfortable and well organised bazaar.  Pattinapakkam and its nine villages never had it so good for fishing and sale. All is well that ends well …even as the CM announced that the planned Secretariat project was shelved here, a huge sigh of relief pacify the fisherfolk. Even as you turn right at Santhome, the Neo-Gothic Basilica and Cathedral of St Thomas, an apostle of Jesus Christ, rises up to the sky. Knock and the door shall be opened!