Yummy, but is it safe?

New Delhi, Sept. 21: Choked waterway now, cuisine corridor in future.

Calcutta’s Beleghata canal may emerge as India’s first food street under a plan drawn up by the Centre to develop such eating zones in 25 cities. The objective is to offer local cuisine in more hygienic and safe conditions.

The blueprint has been drawn up by the food processing ministry, which is planning to invest Rs 125 crore in the project. The food streets are also expected to be big tourist attractions, like Bangkok’s night market. The Bengal government already has plans to clean up the Beleghata canal and develop it as a tourist zone.

“We will have similar food streets in Delhi, Mumbai and other major cities. These will be places where people will get a taste of the local cuisine,” P.I. Suvrathan, secretary in the ministry of food processing industries, said.

The vendors will have to upgrade themselves, Suvrathan said, adding the government will help them with improvements in the ambience and publicity. “It is not just food streets that we intend to develop. We also plan to improve the quality of street food all over India.”

At present, there are question marks on the quality and hygiene of the food served by Calcutta’s 1.3 lakh street vendors.

There is contamination, and water has been identified as a major source of the problem. The water used in cooking and washing utensils has often been found infected during surprise checks by health authorities.

The All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health will help the ministry assess and set hygiene standards.

Indira Chakravarty, the institute’s director, said: “We are involving the police and the municipality in the effort.”

Plans have also been made to help the vendors scale up their business and to provide them loans through micro-finance. Suvrathan said the standard of 50,000 vendors, spread across 50 cities, will be upgraded in the next few years.