The 16 shops — eight on each side of India Gate — were constructed as part of the Central Vista Avenue redevelopment. Praveen KhannaRural women-led self-help groups were being considered to operate regional street food shops on Kartavya Path, and the decision was being taken at the highest levels of the government, according to officials aware of the development.
Earlier this year, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs had tied up with Delhi Tourism to allot the shops to different state tourism departments to operate Dilli Haat-style kiosks. But soon after the inauguration of the revamped Kartavya Path by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 8, the Ministry changed its plans.
The 16 shops — eight on each side of India Gate — were constructed as part of the Central Vista Avenue redevelopment. The shops were to be opened by September 20, but are yet to become operational, according to two officials.
Now, the government is considering giving the shops to self-help groups in order to provide employment to women, while the focus would still be on providing customers with regional cuisine from different states, a senior MoHUA official said. The official added that the proposal was a work-in-progress and that the shops would be opened soon.
Another top MoHUA functionary said a proposal to give the shops at Kartavya Path to states on a rotational basis was being considered. However, instead of asking the tourism departments of states to operate the shops, the government was considering giving the shops to self-help groups under the Rural Development Ministry’s Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission.
Before the change of plans, a memorandum of agreement (MoA) had been signed between the MoHUA and Delhi Tourism on September 1, but discussions between the two had started in June, an official said. Delhi Tourism had written to all states and union territories asking them to apply for the shops. Sixteen states and UTs had shown interest and were then asked to select vendors, which were to be different from the ones already operating at Dilli Haat, the official said.
Three of the states — Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra — had begun operations in September and the remaining 13 were in the process of setting up shop when the MoA was cancelled on September 16, the official said.
Seven states — West Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha — had started preparations to open shop by September 20. The Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments had begun the process as well, the official said.
State government officials of two of the selected states said, on condition of anonymity, that they had been told to cancel preparations and were not told the reason for the same.
A Central Public Works Department official said the shops would take at least a month more to be opened. The official added that the project was “taken back from DTTDC (Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation) after a government-level decision”. The Ministry was formulating a policy for the same, the official said. A spokesperson for the Ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the reason for cancelling the MoA and the expected timeline for opening of the shops.