Tiruchi Corporation’s plan to promote Food Street runs into delay
The Hindu
Tiruchi Corp.’s ‘Food Street’ project, to provide infrastructure for food vendors, delayed due to UGD work. Layout ready by Feb, 40 stalls to be set up. ₹3 cr to be spent, seating & parking spaces, hygienic food at affordable rates, uniform look, waste mgmt, ID cards for stall operators. Regulate street vendors, end traffic bottlenecks.
Tiruchi Corporation’s proposed ‘Food Street’, earmarked near Uzhavar Santhai at Anna Nagar, to provide exclusive infrastructure for food vendors to sell a variety of delicacies, has run into further delay.
The project, mooted earlier this year, was scheduled to commence by May due to rework in the layout to make it more user-friendly. However, the ongoing underground drainage work in the locality is cited as the reason for the delay in implementation of the project. The site is also used as storage area by the contractor executing the underground drainage scheme in the city. Pipes and pre-fabricated concrete manholes have been stored at the site which belongs to the Corporation.
“Although a layout was ready by February, the in-house design team had to reconfigure some of the facilities according to people’s requirements. The project will start taking shape once the UGD and road works are completed,” said a senior Corporation official.
In the new layout, around 40 food stalls would be set up, and vendors selling a variety of food will be eligible to book their spots for an approximate rent of ₹10,000 each. The civic body would spend around ₹3 crore to set up the ‘Food Street,’ with seating arrangements and parking spaces.
According to the officials, ‘Food Street’ would attract many customers from amongst the residents visiting the Uzhavar Santhai, and the initiative would later be extended to nearby streets based on customer reviews.
The initiative aims to ensure hygienic food at affordable rates. All the food carts will have a uniform look, and the vendors will be required to wear aprons, caps and gloves to ensure hygiene. Waste management will also be ensured on the streets. Identity cards for the stall operators would be issued to ensure that they do not set up their businesses elsewhere in the city.
Designated food streets would help regulate the street vendors and put an end to stalls being set up at various locations, which cause traffic bottlenecks and affect public mobility, the official added.
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