Pettah Floating Market

Pettah Floating Market Pettah Floating Market Pettah Floating Market

Just off the busy main streets of Pettah in Colombo, is a veritable oasis of calm water, dark wood and smooth cement walkways. The Pettah Floating Marketing may not actually float over the water, but it definitely floats over the hustle and bustle of the dirty streets in Colombo busiest trade zone.

Located on Bastian Mawatha, a short one-way street that cuts through to connect a curved section of Olcott Mawatha like a bow, the Floating Market lies right opposite the Pettah Private Bus Station. This is the central depot where all the private bus routes into, within and out of Colombo connect. Right next to the Bus Station is the Pettah Fruit and Vegetable Market, a goldmine of fresh produce brought in from all around the island. As such the street is extremely busy, despite it’s being one-way only.

Therefore coming up on the calm piece of beauty amongst all the noisy hubbub of the city always is quite a pleasant shock.

The Creation of the Pettah Floating Market

Approximately twenty years ago, in the late 1990s, the space where the Floating Market is on Bastian Mawatha was one of the worst areas in Pettah; filled with abandoned age-blackened factories and warehouses, a stinking canal from from the colonial era, shifty looking men lurking in shadowed corners and much illegal activity. In the meantime, along some of the other streets in Pettah, street sellers crowded the sidewalks with small illegal stalls, overflowing with wares, forcing the pedestrians to use middle of the road to travel. This caused several dangerous accidents causing the Urban Council of Colombo to break their heads over it. However with the civil war going on at that time in Sri Lanka, resources were scarce and nothing was done.

In the first decade of the new millennium the situation became worse, with even more street sellers blocking the streets and some even spilling into the road. The shady warehouses near the city’s main private bus depot became even more threatening, a haunt of drug dealers, criminals and other lowlife, the place stank and the ground was spattered with all sorts of unspeakable filth. Most decent people tried to avoid going down that way, trying to catch buses from other halts or buy produce elsewhere. With the war at an end the resources used in the war lay idle.

Then the Colombo Urban Council came to the decision that this could not go on. They decided to kill several birds with one stone. They engaged the Urban Development Authority  (UDA) on a beautification project that would end up costing Rs 150 Million. The UDA contacted the Ministry of Defense and requested the assistance of the Engineering Units from the Sri Lanka Army and units from the Sri Lanka Navy, who were both at the time finding themselves at a quandary with nothing to do.

The military units went to work cleaning up the surroundings of Bastian Mawatha. The canal was dredged and cleaned. Broken and abandoned warehouses were demolished and their lands used as space for the floating market. Trees were plant

À propos du district de Colombo

Colombo est la plus grande ville et la capitale commerciale du Sri Lanka. Elle est située sur la côte ouest de l'île, à proximité de Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte, la capitale du pays. Colombo est une ville animée et dynamique, mêlant modernité, bâtiments et ruines coloniaux, et compte 647 100 habitants. La région métropolitaine de Colombo, définie par les districts de Colombo, Gampaha et Kalutara, compte une population estimée à 5 648 000 habitants et couvre une superficie de 3 694,20 km². Colombo est une ville multiethnique et multiculturelle. C'est la ville la plus peuplée du Sri Lanka, avec 642 163 habitants. La population de Colombo est un mélange de nombreux groupes ethniques, principalement cinghalais, maures et tamouls. On y trouve également de petites communautés d'origine chinoise, portugaise, néerlandaise, malaise et indienne, ainsi que de nombreux expatriés européens. La grande majorité des entreprises sri-lankaises ont leur siège social à Colombo. Parmi les industries présentes figurent les produits chimiques, le textile, le verre, le ciment, la maroquinerie, le mobilier et la bijouterie. Le centre-ville abrite le deuxième plus haut gratte-ciel d'Asie du Sud : le World Trade Centre. À propos de la province occidentale : la province occidentale est la plus densément peuplée du Sri Lanka. Elle abrite la capitale législative, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, ainsi que Colombo, centre administratif et commercial du pays. La province occidentale est divisée en trois districts principaux : Colombo (642 km²), Gampaha (1 386,6 km²) et Kalutara (1 606 km²). En tant que pôle économique du Sri Lanka, la ville accueille toutes les grandes entreprises locales et internationales, ainsi que les grands créateurs et les grandes enseignes. Préparez-vous donc à une séance de shopping dans la province occidentale. Avec la plus forte population de toutes les provinces, la province occidentale abrite la quasi-totalité des principaux établissements d'enseignement de l'île. Parmi les universités de la province, on compte l'Université de Colombo, l'Université de Sri Jayewardenepura, l'Université de Kelaniya, l'Open University, l'Université bouddhiste et pali du Sri Lanka, l'Université de défense générale Sir John Kotelawala et l'Université de Moratuwa. La province occidentale compte le plus grand nombre d'établissements scolaires du pays, comprenant des écoles nationales, provinciales, privées et internationales.

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