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New Manning Market Complex: All set for tomorrow

13 Dec 2020

  • Shop allocation issue sorted  
By Sarah Hannan  The New Manning Market Complex in Oliyamulla, Peliyagoda is to open for wholesale purchasers from 4 p.m. tomorrow (14), the Urban Development Authority (UDA) revealed.  Last week, traders launched a protest campaign over the allocation of shop spaces, indicating that they were not happy about how the spaces had been allocated.  According to the UDA, which undertook the development of the property, 440 shop spaces were constructed, whereas when the space allocation commenced, they found out that there were over 700 traders that required shop spaces.  When The Sunday Morning contacted UDA Director General N.P.K. Ranaweera on the matter, he said: “To accommodate as many traders as possible, we had to section off several shop spaces into two; the protest was over the limited space that was allocated and the majority of them wanted the ground-level shops rather than the shops that were on the first floor.”  Ranaweera also stated that about 680 traders agreed to the conditions and had registered to occupy the spaces and it was only a fraction of them that were protesting. He indicated that there was a hidden agenda behind the protest that was organised from 10 to 11 December.  Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Manning Market Public Trade Association Chairman Lal Hettige said: “The protest was launched by a section of the traders who were unclear about how the shop spaces were allocated. They ended the protest on Friday after an explanation was made by the authorities.”  Hettige also noted that the trading for the moment will be restricted to only wholesale/bulk order purchasers and the complex will remain open from 4 p.m. till midnight daily, so that the complex could maintain the Covid-19 prevention protocols as directed by the healthcare authorities.   


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