Guwahati, June 1: Move over chicken burgers and pork momos! Now, piping hot fish cutlets and fish pakoras will tickle your taste buds in town.
Hyderabad-based National Fisheries Development Board and Assam Apex Co-operative Fish Marketing & Processing Federation Ltd (Fishfed) have forged an alliance to launch four mobile fish retail outlets here.
As of now, two such outlets (vans) are wooing people to the value-added fare since their launch on May 21 in busy locations such as Panbazar and Dispur. The other two are being used as part of the Fishfed fleet to market varieties of raw fish. The menu, though, is a tad short for comfort, but refreshingly sumptuous with fish cutlets, rolls, pakoras and momos for the taking. What's more, it's pocket-friendly: all you need is to part with Rs 30 per item to savour them 10 minutes after placing the order.The board had in a meeting with Fishfed officials last year decided to jointly come up with a Rs 38.64 lakh project for four vehicles, of which it would provide Rs 28.98 lakh (75 per cent of the total cost).
"We had proposed to Fishfed about the concept after it became an instant hit in states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Four modified Bolero vehicles have been provided under the project," Ramendra Chandra Barman, officer-in-charge of the board's regional centre, told The Telegraph. "The response, as anticipated, has been good. Close to 90 per cent of the state'spopulation eats fish, and with such value addition, the scope for such development intervention for effective fish marketing is huge," Barman said.
"Apart from the busy areas, the vans would be placed near parks and colleges and also at venues hosting exhibitions and functions," he said.
The board has taken up domestic marketing in India in a flagship manner to bring about a change in overall domestic marketing, including mobile retail fish marketing. Two of the four vehicles under the project would be used in marketing of fish. Fishfed has four refrigerated vans, four non-refrigerated vans and two auto-vans selling fish in seven to eight prime locations of the city. "The basic concept of the project is to undertake the entire marketing activities from a central place (Fishfed) where two central storehouses with cold storage facilities are available," Barman said.
Fishfed managing director B.K. Nath said the federation is in talks with the board for acquisition of more vehicles to take the concept to central and Upper Assam and Barak Valley in a phased manner. "The concept is being tried and tested in Guwahati. If it clicks, we will soon have mobile retail outlets selling the value-added varieties in places such as Nagaon, Jorhat, Sivasagar and Dibrugarh and in parts of lower Assam and Barak Valley in a phased manner," Nath said.
