Lack of parking space
Manama : The lack of parking space has affected business at Manama Central Fish Market, the Kingdom’s largest fish market, with dwindling sales.
“There are no space for customers to park their vehicles near the market which is affecting our business,” said a Bahraini vendor at the market said yesterday.
“The issue of the limited parking space for customers has always been there. But in recent years, the shipping trucks delivering fruits and vegetables to the nearby vegetables market have overtaken whatever tiny space our customers had to park their vehicles. We also have customers coming in from Saudi Arabia who repeatedly complain about the lack of regulation of traffic here,” said Mohammed Mirza, who has been in the business for over 50 years.
“If no adequate parking spaces are provided for them, the customers won’t come to our market anymore,” he said, adding that the authorities have given them several promises to develop the market in the past, but with no action taken.
“Fruits and vegetables are given the priority here, that’s why the trucks had slowly overtaken the parking space allocated for our customers through the years. Additionally, traffic police patrols deal strictly with drivers who double park. Our customers complain that they pay traffic fines when they come to the market instead of buying fish. Many of them stopped coming here and go to Jidhafs Central Market,” said Abdulaziz another vendor.
It’s noteworthy that some of the trucks drivers, who travel for long distances from Oman, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, spend a night or two in their trucks that are parked near the market.
Capital General Secretariat (formerly municipality) had stated earlier that it’s coordinating with Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry to commence road maintenance in the parking lots allocated to trucks as well as market traders and visitors.
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