Roadside eateries mushrooming up in the city

MYSORE: One of the major problems many metropolitan and tier II cities like Mysore face is roadside eateries.
These eateries are akin to motels on highways, but they are situated in city areas. The mushrooming of roadside eateries during the past decade across Mysore city is causing many problems including traffic and pedestrian movement, not to mention its unhygienic condition.
Mohammed Thasin, a researcher, feels that traffic is affected very badly near commercial tax office on Krishna Vilas road and opposite Town Hall on Ashok road, where vendors have encroached a portion of the footpaths and roads to carry out their businesses from dusk to late night hours.
Of late, the eateries are also patronized by people. The only drawback about the eateries is its unhygienic set up. As most of it being run by EWS, they don't have a proper place to do business. The government has to step in and provide a space for them in the central business district, he says.
Hotel Owners' Association president M Rajendra told TOI that the increase in number of roadside eateries is having an adverse impact on small hoteliers who regularly pay tax to the government. But now many of them are on the verge of closing down their establishments due to lack of business.
One thing is clear that roadside eateries can't provide hygienic food and also evade tax, besides not having to be answerable to any authority, who lay dozens of conditions to businessmen to maintain standards, rate chart, hygienic etc, like hoteliers. Moreover, not all roadside vendors are poor as claimed by many of them, he said, adding that the government has to intervene in this matter.
But the civic body's promise to create a hawkers' zone in parts of city to facilitate the vendors is yet to be materialized.
Roadside eateries:
Krishna Vilas road
Ashoka road near Dufferin clock tower (Doddagadiyara)
Udayaravi road in Kuvempunagar
Vivekananda circle junction
Marthrumandali circle in V V Puram
Irwin road and Bangalore-Nilgiri road near KSRTC bus stand