The fish and seafood markets in Chennai are huge and crowded as the seafood lovers in the city would always throng to bag their favorite aquarian and these markets form up as one of the stable economic corridors of the state accounting for lakhs of fishermen and their livelihoods. However, the lockdown imposed for containing the Coronavirus pandemic has turned the markets empty with relatively minimal commercial activities.

The decline in the market has caused a major blow to the fishing community in Chennai and across the state. With the view of pouring reliefs to the fishermen and the seafood lovers, the Tamil Nadu state government has launched the mobile application to deliver the seafood to people at their doorstep. Named as 'Meengal', this app would initially deliver the food to the households around government-run fish stalls.

According to the reports, the state fisheries department has launched the mobile app version of the existing website so that the people can place the order without any hindrance amid the lockdown. 

Currently, people residing around government-run fish stalls in Santhome, Teynampet, Anna Nagar, Virumgambakkam, and surrounding areas in the radius of 5 km can be permitted to place the order between 9.30 am and 12.30 pm with accord to the lockdown restrictions. 

The Greater Chennai Corporation has launched the logo for the mobile app and it would deliver quality fish and seafood to the doorsteps of the customers and the application is out on the Google play store. This virtual initiative from the government has come ten days after it has allowed traditional fishermen to hit the sea and market the aquarian by ensuring that they follow preventive measures and precautions to curb the spread of the virus.

State Fisheries Minister Jayakumar has appealed people to refrain from getting crowded at the seafood markets and to order the seafood through the website and mobile application. The state government has launched a website (www.meengal.com) earlier to replace the crowded market with the online market to deliver the seafood in the limited areas of the city.