Modern Thattukadas for hygienic food

KOCHI: Come March and the street food trend is to take a new turn.In order to maintain hygiene and cleanliness in the city, the Corporation is all set to distribute around 100 modern ‘thattukadas’ in the city.About 50 ‘thattukadas’ equipped with solar heaters, purified water and good stoves for cooking, will be distributed in the first phase of the project.Also, 50 street food vendors have been identified across the city.The Corporation will take away the old ‘thattukadas’ and replace them with new ones.The vendors will be trained and will be given financial assistance in the form of grant and bank loan.A modern ‘thattukada’ costs around Rs 70,000.“The new ‘thattukada’ will be two-metre long and onemetre wide with a stainless steel platform.We are also giving awareness and training to ‘thattukada’ owners,” said T K Ashraf, Corporation Health Standing Committee chairman.This unique initiative of the Corporation is part of a scheme to rehabilitate street food vendors with financial assistance from Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project.The project, ‘Rehabilitation of Street Food Vendors and Safe Food City’ aims to revamp hundreds of ‘thattukadas’ of selected vendors.The Corporation will give a grant of `50,000 to each vendor.The grant amount should be transferred to an account in the syndicate bank which has also sanctioned a loan for the new project.Three months ago, when viral fever broke out in the city, the District Panchayat ordered a ban on ‘thattukadas’ in Kochi.However, owing to widespread protest, the district panchayat was forced to change the decision and withdraw the ban.The Corporation and the health authorities decided to distribute modern ‘thattukadas.’ Initially, they gave one ‘thattukada’ to a vendor in Vyttila and found it to be successful.They hope to complete the project by the end of March.