Chennai: India’s largest railway food court will come up in Chennai in six months with over 25 catering brands offering local and international cuisines to serve around 500 people at a time.
The food court will come up at three venues — one at the concourse, another on the GST side and the third on the Eastern side of the Tambaram railway station — and will benefit around 1.7 lakh commuters arriving at the terminal on a daily basis.
Ranging from the local ‘kaara dosa’, ‘medhu vada’ ‘appam’ and ‘parotta’
varieties to the latest pizza and burger combos, the eatery is set to offer the latest and most sought out delicacies undertaken by the major food brands of south India under one umbrella, a senior IRCTC officials told Deccan Chronicle.
“The time period for construction of the food court is six months. We expect sales of around '5-7 lakh daily once the food court is opened to the public. This has been a long pending demand from the public as there is no eatery near the station,” said N Gopinathan, chief project consultant.
“We have already started the bore-well construction at the GST side and at the eastern side of the site where the food court will open. On uninterrupted power supply, we are in talks with the railways and the state electricity board,” he said.
The food plaza that will occupy a space of 15,000 square feet, the largest occupancy in any railway station in the country, will be run and operated by
‘J.S Caterers’, an Erode-based catering chain, which won the financial bid at Rs 4 crore per annum for the next 12 years.
“At present, we are looking to open 14 counters at the basement of the main food court on GST side with a lift. Also, the outlet will have centralised AC and people will have separate stands to have coffee at the entrance,” said Praveen Khatri, one of the designers of the Tambaram food court.
Meanwhile, members of Rail Users Forum maintained that railways and IRCTC should have a control over pricing at the same time and make sure that the quality of the food served is not compromised.
“Unlike the outlets in airports, railway food courts should serve food at affordable prices. With such a large food plaza coming in railway should make sure that the quality of water is also not compromised,” said A.P. Anwar, convener, All India Rail Users Association. At present, there are 135 food plazas in Indian Railways out of which 37 food plazas are operated in Southern railways.
