Gordhanlal B. Solanki has been running the Mumbai Badam Milk and Lassi Centre for over three decades at the V.V. Puram thindi beedi (food street). However, his business has seen a lull over the last few years due to the pandemic and now the closure of the street by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for more than seven months for its revamp. A turnover is not more than 10-20% of what it used to be in the pre-pandemic period, he says.
“I have had my shop at the food street for more than 30 years. It is undoubtedly one of the most popular shops in the area and everyone who visits the food street makes a stop at our shop,” he says with pride. “But over the last few years, things have changed. Due to the pandemic, we saw a huge fall in business. Back then we had enough savings to cope with the situation and also look after our staff. Post-pandemic it was important for us to have a good business turnover to make up. When things were getting better, it was announced that the food street had to be shut for a few months, as the entire street was being revamped,“ Mr. Solanki said.
August deadline missed
The revamp, which started in January, is still not complete. The promise was that it would be complete by the month of July and inaugurated in August on Independence Day, but the footpaths have not been constructed, nor have the streetlights been installed. There is debris everywhere, and when it rains, the street is a mess. The entry and exit of the road are still blocked and it is hard for people to walk in. “Our business also requires a lot of time to prepare our dishes. We can not rely on online business platforms like Zomato or Swiggy, as we can not prepare anything within half an hour or store the dishes for too long,“ added Mr. Solanki.
With revamp work still on, most of the food stalls remain shut. The promised transformation to make it “resemble Church Street” is still a work in progress. During The Hindu’s visit to thindi beedi, shop owners expressed their disappointment about the work dragging on.
Dev Sagar, an outlet that has been on the food street for more than 15 years, known for its delicious Vada Pav, Dabeli, Rasagulla, and Chaat, has seen a downfall in business by at least 50%. “The food industry comes with a lot of financial commitment. There are staff working in our outlet since its inception and it is not fair to ask them to leave just because the business turnover is not that great,” said Jitendra Kumar Singh, who runs Dev Sagar.
On the footpath
“We have been cooking and selling food on the footpath unwillingly and not at the store as the stores are not accessible to the customers. The street is currently unsafe for customers, lacks parking space, footpaths, and is unhygienic... This is the story of almost every outlet on the food street. The closure of the food street has definitely been a challenge. The BBMP can work on its fancy ideas to revamp the street later, but it’s a request from all of us at Food Street to give us a safe and usable street as early as possible,“ Mr. Singh added.
Manikantan M., along with his father Murugan, runs Arya Vysya Refreshment which is touted to be the first and oldest food center on the thindi beedi established in 1942. The popular Paddu, Dosa, Idly, and Obbattu joint claims that the closure of the food street for more than seven months feels like a “fourth wave of COVID-19 hitting the street.”
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Manikantan said, “Post the pandemic, those who own eateries at the food street are like daily wage workers. What we earn today is used on some or the other expense the same day. There are no waivers on bills for us, no matter what the situation is, and we must continue to make payments. Due to the closure of the food street, three popular eateries have permanently shut down and it doesn’t seem like they will come back anytime soon in the future. We have partially opened the store now, but are short of staff.”
He said that many of their workers from different northern states have looked for other jobs or have started their own businesses on the footpaths. “The closure has brought in a fourth-wave kind of situation for all of us here. The food industry is in a boom throughout the city. However, it is not the same for our food street,“ he said.
Danger at every turn
“Even if customers want to come in, the street is currently unsafe. The footpaths are not complete, the chamber lines are not closed, nor are there any streetlights. A few days ago, a worker on the street accidentally stepped into the chamber line that was not covered but was luckily not injured. The same situation happened with a cow late in the night after the first incident. Staff working at our store and other eateries noticed the situation and immediately rescued the cow. We have been requesting the BBMP officials and contractors to finish the work soon,” Mr. Manikantan added.
Despite promises, working is progressing at a slow pace on the 200-metere-long and 5-meter-wide food street. The BBMP does not have a fixed deadline for the completion of the food street.
Due to contractors’ strike
Jayaram Raipura, Special Commissioner, Finance, who oversees the revamping of the V.V. Puram food street, said that the delay in completion was due to the strike by contractors. “All the major work is complete on the food street other than decorative elements like streetlights and sidewalks. Due to pending payments from the BBMP, many contractors called for a strike, and the contractors who were working on the revamp of the food street, who had no issues with bill clearance, were forced by their associations not to take their work forward. However, the pending bills issue is resolved now, and the contractors have agreed to complete the work on the street. The remaining work will be complete in 15 to 20 days.”
