PRAYAGRAJ: Prayagraj residents will no longer be able to enjoy late night trips to the roadside shops selling delectable street food between Dhobighat Crossing and Maharana Pratap Crossing as the open market will now offer only takeaway facility. The market was a regular for gastronomes and had over 100 street vendors selling a large variety of dishes.
Prayagraj Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) move to restrict crowds in the night market comes in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the need to maintain social distancing.
As many of these eateries did not have any seating arrangements, customers often had to eat while standing in their parked vehicles.
The market was launched under the Smart City project. Sources said that the tender was floated twice, but there were no bids.
In the meantime, unauthorised roadside vendors selling fast food in localities like Civil Lines among others were removed after anti-encroachment drives by the PMC. The district administration then shifted these vendors to the night market.
Around the past three months, there had been a sudden surge in the number of customers in the market, especially office-goers and youths.
Come night, many of them could be spotted standing near their motorcycles and cars to enjoy the street food. However, the increase in footfall came at the cost of public safety, as these customers spared little concern for social distancing and other Covid-19 guidelines.
Hence, the municipal corporation decided to switch to only takeaway service in the market.
“We have seen that the shopkeepers have made it a practice to deliver food items to customers sitting in their cars or motorcycles and no one cares about following the norms despite the seriousness of the pandemic. Thus, we have decided that these shopkeepers would serve only packed food and give it to customers who would not be allowed to consume it in the market,” said additional municipal commissioner Mushir Ahmad.