Quality food, affordable price, to be hallmarks

 The state government is planning to accord top priority to quality of food and hygiene at Indira canteens, where breakfast, lunch and dinner will be served at affordable price.

As many as 198 Indira canteens, one for each ward of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), will be launched on August 15.

“Lot of importance is being given to quality, starting from infrastructure to standard of food that will be served. A host of conditions have been stipulated pertaining to food, cleanliness at the kitchen, cooking, transportation,” Manoj Rajan, Special Commissioner, BBMP, who is incharge of the Indira canteen project told DH. 

He said it has been stipulated that the caterer will have to abide by the provisions of the Food Safety and Food Standards Act, 2006. A third party audit will be conducted on a regular basis to monitor quality control and hygiene related issues, Rajan said.

Precast technology

In an innovative move, all Indira canteens are being constructed using 78 prefabricated elements. The government decided to choose precast technology over the conventional brick-and-mortar method as the former has the advantage of quality and speed of construction.

It is estimated that precast technology helps in saving up to 64% of the time taken for projects using normal construction method. Each canteen will have eight tall round tables outside the premises and six benches inside. At any time, 80 people can partake food at the canteens, Rajan said. One centralised kitchen per Assembly constituency will cater to all wards in the jurisdiction.

Logo

The state government has finalised the logo for Indira canteen after holding a competition in which 600 citizens participated. The logo finalised depicts an artistic fusion of plantain leaf with two plates.

The menu has also been finalised. Breakfast will be three idlis and coconut chutney or chow chow bhath, puliyogere, pongal, kharabhat, rave kichidi, chitranna and vangibhath.

Variety of dishes

Lunch and dinner will be rice with sambar and curd rice. Sambar will be different each day like mixed veg sambar, Mangaluru southekayi sambar, yellow pumkin sambar, hirekai sambar, white pumpkin sambar and brinjal sambar. Instead of rice with sambar, there will be an option to choose from tomato bath, chitranna, vangibhath, bisi bele bath, menthya pulao, Rajan said.

Breakfast will be from 7:30 am to 10 am, lunch: 12.30 pm to 3 pm, dinner: 7.30 pm to 10 pm.

Approximately three lakh people will be served each day, including Sundays.