Facelift for food street with eye on ballot?

The corporator of VV Puram seems to be believing that the way to a voter's heart is through his stomach.

Apparently in a bid to win over the electorate, corporate Anil Kumar has invested an undisclosed amount to give a facelift to a popular food street where around 5,000 people troop every evening to dig into delicious snacks.


A couple enjoys snacks on the VV Puram food street yesterday

Now, foodies are happy that their favourite eating out address otherwise littered with used plates, left over food and waste generated by food stalls will now be speck and span and hygienic, as the corporator plans to building drains on either side of the road, re-lay the stretch and make arrangements for waste management.

Worth an effort
"We thought it would be worth an effort to improve the hygienic conditions on the popular food street that has been satiating the culinary cravings of the Bangaloreans for the past 70 years.
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We have started construction of drainages on either side of the road. We also plan to lay down a concrete road too," said Anil Kumar, Corporator, VV Puram.

The local BBMP office had received many requests from the residents and usual frequenters to clean up the mess on the road. However, the officials had clarified that if regularisation begins, most of these places would be shut down, due to lack of hygiene maintained.

"When we heard about this, we requested the corporator on behalf of these stall owners to not shut down the shops but look for an alternative solution. This is when the BBMP thought of revamping the roads first and shopkeepers have agreed to maintain the roads well," said K L Kalashree, a resident of Baswangudi.

Vendors miffed
Development certainly comes at a cost and these shopkeepers at VV Puram have just realised that. The vendors complain that the ongoing construction work, which continues till late in the evening, has been adversely affecting their business for the past few months.

"We have welcomed BBMP's move to revamp the roads. As the construction continues till late in the evening, customers do not want to stand near our stalls because of dust and dirt generated due to the work.

We have requested the BMMP to halt work from 5 pm, but our requests have fallen into deaf ears," said Rampal Yadav, a shopkeeper. Asked about the vendors' complaints, the corporator said that he would look into the matter.