With too little on their plates, city’s street food vendors stare at empty stalls, await customers

Nagpur: Gratifying taste buds with street food delicacies like bhelpuri, shevpuri, chaat etc from roadside joints will cost you nearly Rs5 per plate more post Covid-19. Most roadside vendors have increased prices to manage additional expenditure on account of maintaining hygiene by using sanitisers, disposable plates, gloves etc. Though, business has gone down drastically.
However, almost all street food vendors have kept panipuri rates untouched.
“I have already increased rates of bhelpuri, shevpuri, chaat etc by Rs5 per plate,” said Suraj Patel, who owns a roadside stall at Shankar Nagar.
Patel said due to coronavirus scare, eating joints have been taking precautionary measures by not only using mask, but also keeping hand sanitisers, gloves and disposable plates etc. “All these have increased our daily expenditure, whereas profit has reduced to almost zero,” he said.
Though Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is yet to allow hawkers to do business in city, roadside eating joints in many parts have resumed operations.
TOI found that most of the eating joints have already started using face masks, gloves and disposable plates. “Covid-19 pandemic has hit the street food business the hardest,” said another vendor Govid Patel from Shankar Nagar garden.
Earlier, there used to be almost 15 street food stalls near Shankar Nagar garden. Now, barely two-three can be seen, he said, pointing out that many of the vendors have gone back to their native places.
“As educational institutions are closed, we are missing our huge chunk of business which we do by selling our food to crowds of youngsters,” said Neeraj Gupta, a vendor from Telangkhedi, where he runs a fast food centre.
“It’s the Covid fear. People don’t want to come out, no matter if we use sanitisers, wear masks, gloves or have a Covid-free certificate up in front of our stall,” said Kumar Rao, who runs a South Indian food stall in Indora.
But there are Nagpurians who would love to see their favourite street food stalls back in action and thriving. TOI spotted rise in number of food stalls in many areas including in front of district court and panchayat samiti office near Akashwani Square. Most of the roadside stalls were crowded.
Corporator Gopichand Kumre, who too runs one such stall in Itwari, said street food lovers are coming back in large numbers in this part of the city. He admitted that the cost of running eating joints has increased due to Covid-19 guidelines. Kumre has not increased rates of varieties of sandwiches he serves. Kumre claimed he only caters to takeaway orders.
College student Tarun Pal has actually been out to visit his favourite chaat bhandar in Itwari’s Shahid Chowk after the lockdown was eased. According to him the one he missed the most during the lockdown was samosa-kachori wala in Itwari that he has been going to since he was a child.
Mayor Sandip Joshi, however, expressed concern over opening of roadside food stalls in many areas across the city and said he would direct the civic administration to look into the matter. He appealed to the citizens to ensure their safety while eating food in such places.