In one more achievement for the city, Surat has been selected for a special project by the union ministry of food processing industries, called 'Upgradation of Quality of Street Food'.
In one more achievement for the city, Surat has been selected for a special project by the union ministry of food processing industries, called 'Upgradation of Quality of Street Food'. The project will be executed by the SMC with the help of an NGO appointed by the ministry. Surat is the only city in Gujarat which has been selected for the project.
This project will be implemented under two phases: Safe Food Town and Food Street. The project aims to ensure that street food is of better quality and hygiene and will provide basic facilities to vendors, like healthcare, insurance and finance for their business.
Under the Safe Food Town phase, a survey will be done in the city by an NGO, appointed by the union ministry. In the survey, the NGO will identify the areas in the city or zones for development of a food zone or town, after which a detailed project report (DPR) will be prepared by SMC officials. The DPR will be sent to the union ministry for approval and once it gets nod, officials will start executing the work.
Special training will be provided to vendors about the safe and hygienic ways of preparing and selling food to customers. 1000 laari owners will be selected from the city for the training and they will be given assistance of all sorts. This will include 25% finance from the union ministry to build laaris, while insurance cover and health benefits will be provided by the SMC.
“For training and preparing the DPR, the union ministry has sanctioned Rs13 lakh and has even released 10% of it. SMC will provide training to the laari owners, who will be selected randomly from the entire city. The move will not only improve the quality of food, but will also help the SMC to promote good food practices. DPR and training are part of phase I and once they are completed, work on phase II will be started,” Hemant Desai, in-charge deputy commissioner of health & hospitals (SMC), said.
Municipal commissioner S Aparna said, “Surat has been selected for its vivid food culture and habits. The survey work will be done by the NGO and SMC will have to provide full support to it during the work.”
“There are possibilities of selecting a particular area in the city or one area in each zone for developing Food Street. There are many things to be analysed, like availability of open space, minimum hindrance to traffic movement, ample parking space and good location, before finalising any area for it,” she added.
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