HYDERABAD: Annapurna canteens, which serve hot and delicious afternoon meals to citizens at a highly subsidised rate of Rs 5, are all set for a makeover. Greater Hyderabad will soon be dotted with mild steel prefabricated cabins in place of the existing box-like structures.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation will set up 60 of these steel cabins on a pilot basis in all six zones under its jurisdiction. There are 150 Annapurna canteens in the city currently. The centres have been hugely popular with the poor and downtrodden, students and migrant workers. But they aren’t aesthetically appealing and neither is there any place to sit and eat. People who purchase meals from the counter are forced to stand and eat in the open.
It will approximately cost Rs 26.85 crore for setting up 60 steel units of modernised Annapurna centres with spacious seating. The project proposal has been sent to the State government for administrative sanction.
GHMC officials told Express that the existing Annapurna canteens that were established in phases since 2014 are in bad shape. Most of them are dirty and need to be changed.
Hence, the GHMC has decided to upgrade the cabins in a phased manner. The new-look cabins will have stainless steel dining tables, aluminium chequered plates on the floor and sun shelter awnings etc. Two to three agencies submitted their proposals with quotations to the GHMC recently for establishing the steel prefabricated cabins.
A typical Annapurna canteen meal consists of rice, dal, curry and pickle. Each of the 150 centres serves a minimum of 300 meals a day. While the actual meal costs Rs 24.25 and customers pay Rs 5, the GHMC bears the rest of the cost.
On a pilot basis
The GHMC will set up 60 units on a pilot basis. The new-look prefabricated cabins will have stainless steel dining tables, aluminium chequered plates on the floor and sun shelter awnings.