No stalls, but food hub at Girgaum Chowpatty by end of this month
MUMBAI: In order to make the city’s beaches more touristfriendly, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and the civic body will turn the food stalls along Girgaum Chowpatty into a major hub by the end of this month. Under the clean street food hub initiative, FDA officials have trained nearly 90 people from the 30 stalls at Girgaum Chowpatty on hygiene, sanitation, nutritional status of food items, transparency of food preparation in the kitchen and waste disposal. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials will keep a check on the area’s cleanliness and will clear a small space near the hub for cultural events. The initiative is said to make such crowded places more attractive to visitors and create a sense of cleanliness among the operators of food stalls.
Vishwas Mote, assistant municipal commissioner of D ward (Malabar Hill, Girgaon, said, “We have trained them to segregate their waste and dustbins have been provided to all. Also, the premises will be cleaned by the vendors every day.”
Similar trainings are being held for vendors of food sections at Juhu Chowpatty and in other cities like Pune and Nashik. Mote said that seating arrangements will also be made at the food hub. “Seating arrangements along with clearing open spaces near the food section will be done by the end of this month. The space can be used for art and cultural events such as musical gatherings.”
The staff were asked to mandatorily have gloves, uniforms and caps. They were trained about the nutritional value of food and ways to make stalls more hygienic. Raghunandan Singh, a stall owner, said, “The training was an eye-opener for us as we did not know that small efforts to maintain hygiene can bring a lot of change to our business. Experts training us on ways to sell hygienic food is a welcome move.”