Corporation to develop food street on VOC Ground Road

Coimbatore: Foodies in the city will soon have a new spot to try out healthy street food, with the corporation set to develop a food street on VOC Ground Road. Corporation commissioner M Prathap on Saturday inspected the road, which connects to the VOC park.The street is among the four streets from the state chosen by the Union ministry of health and family welfare to be developed into a food street. A sum of 1 crore has been allotted for the project.VOC park is a major recreation spot in the city and draws hundreds of visitors every evening. The number of visitors go up to thousands on weekends. Presently, the road has a large number of street food kisoks and carts on wheels.Speaking to TOI, Prathap said 30 districts from the state had nominated a street each to be developed as a food street. Of them, six were shortlisted. Four streets from the state were later finalized. A couple of weeks ago, Prathap made a presentation on the importance of the locality and the civic body’s intention to develop it into a street food hub. “A standardized kiosk will be introduced to bring in uniformity. Aesthetics of the street will also be improved to make it pedestrian friendly. Measures will be taken to improve solid waste and sewage waste collection. Drinking water and toilet facilities for the visitors and food vendors will be created as well,” he said, adding that the civic body would spend additional funds for the project.The food safety department has been roped in to train food vendors in improving hygiene and sanitation under the Food Safety Training and Certificate Programme (FoSTaC). The corporation would also ensure that the vendors have a food business operator licence and follow the food safety norms. “They will be trained in procuring safe food materials, and store them and prepare food hygienically. The training will also focus on improving their personnel hygiene,” the corporation commissioner said.