Hyderabad: Hyderabad has 30 per cent more food outlets since 2012, excluding pushcarts, but they are hardly regulated by the understaffed food departments of the civic bodies.
Despite generating revenues of Rs 6,000 crore for the government, a pittance is spent to improve public health safety. The money goes to government agencies like the GHMC, Water and Sewerage and Excise and commercial tax, through trade licenses, building permissions, property tax, licence fees etc.
The city has about 1,000 five-, three-star and major hotels about 4,000 restaurants, 3,000 tiffin centres and messes and another 3,000 catering services.
Mr D.V. Manohar, former president of Hotels and Restaurants Association, AP, said, “When the IT corridor began expansion with more brands coming, the number of professionals looking for something new in all sections, including food, increased. This demand has encouraged the food and beverage market in Hyderabad. There are a lot of eateries that have come up in recent times with a steep increase towards the west side of the city. But the mortality rate is also high, only the fittest survive. That is, only those serving tasty food survive.”
GHMC town planning records show that the corporation earned Rs 600 crore in 2015 from building permissions.
“In what is being perceived as a sign of revival in construction activity in the city, the GHMC netted Rs 526.27 crore as building permission fees during the year 2014-15 as against the previous year’s Rs 501.37 crore.
In 2015-16, the corporation earned over Rs 600 crore, of which a majority per cent of the applications were for hotels and hospitals apart from multi-storey buildings and corporates. That apart, for ease of doing business, GHMC has made the process of building permission and trade license online. The applicants need not make rounds of the GHMC office. This initiative will encourage many,” said an official.
When asked about the lack of food inspectors to check on the quality of food served, officials from the health and sanitation department said that the vacant posts would be filled and each of the 30 circles would have one assistant medical officer and food inspector.
