BENGALURU: After a successful pilot for a redesigned street food vending zone, Sanjayanagar may soon have a permanent unit for 16 push cart vendors at its iconic 'chaat street'. This started as collaborative effort to make street food clean and enable hygienic storage of ingredients with four refrigerators for vendors to keep chutneys, curd, butter, vegetables and other ingredients fresh.The two-week pilot snowballed into a bigger vending zone project, which is being executed by Aakarsh Shamanur, architect, Citizens for Sustainability (CiFoS) and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
“We will have 16 vendors in this dedicated vending zone off Sanjayanagar Main Road. The zone will have dustbins, vessel washing facilities and a parking space, with maintenance being undertaken by food vendors and monthly quality checks by the BBMP. They will be allowed to block the stretch, making it pedestrian-only from 4 pm to 10 pm,” explains Subbaiah TS, trustee of CiFoS.
“Everyone wants to eat street food, but they don’t want vendors blocking the roads. Hygiene and quality are a major cause for concern among customers. We plan to implement a hotel-like system, where there are three basins to dip non-disposable plates in. One with soap water, one with hot water and the third with regular water. There will be one common washing space for all the vendors,” says Subbaiah.
From community fridges to full-fledged vending zone
The community refrigeration idea came from Aakarsh and team — comprising a wellness expert, street food vendor and an IISc student — as a result of a ‘ReimagineWaste’ hackathon held in 2017, organised by IISc and Waste Impact.
A survey conducted by them at chaat street, which is close the Sri Radhakrishna Temple and the BangaloreOne Office, revealed that only 13 per cent (out of 30 respondents) thought that the plates are cleaned in a hygienic manner. The majority — 83 per cent of customers — were willing to pay more if hygienic practices were adopted by vendors.
“We wanted to change the perception around street food vending. People are worried about getting stomach upsets due to lack of storage facilities of uncooked food,” Aakarsh shares, adding, “Almost 70 per cent of the vendors surveyed prepare chutney on a daily basis. Vendors would prepare chutneys at home in the afternoon, which gets spoilt in a matter of three to four hours when kept under regular temperatures. They would store them in boxes, and by the time it is consumed by late evening, there is a high chance of it getting spoilt. We were looking at better storage facilities,” he adds.
Of the four fridges the team had placed in first two weeks of August this year, three of them were filled with onions, tomatoes, paneer, butter, chutney and water. Vendors were charged Rs10 per item, per day.
“The survey showed that six out of 11 vendors agreed to pay between Rs 5 to Rs 20 for storing food hygienically. They also wanted facilities for clean washing and maintenance,” he says, adding, "For the permanent vending zone we are working on, we plan to install solar-powered fridges.”
Approval from residents too
“We plan to block the Y-shaped junction near the Sanjayanagar Police Station during the evenings for the push carts to sell street food. Parking space will be given on adjoining roads for customers, along with seating arrangements,” says Rudramuni, BBMP assistant engineer, Sanjayanagar Ward 19.“Right now, it is all scattered with push carts parked in a haphazard way.
After the designated time, the vendors will have to leave. Their carts will be numbered and specific locations will be given to each. We are waiting for residents to finalise the list of vendors and take approval from them too,” he adds.The team is working on the detailed project report (DPR), and say the vending zone will be up and running by the end of 2018. The groundwork, funding model and operational expenses by vendors are being worked out.
Fridges for fresher food
Until the fridges were placed, vendors selling paranthas, dosas, idlis, vadas, all types of chaat, milkshakes and ice cream were storing it all in boxes for several hours or sending someone to go back to their homes to bring fresh ingredients once again.
Zones in other parts too?
This pedestrian-only, hygienic vending zone concept might be scaled in the future to areas such as Whiteifield, Koramangala and Malleswaram.