Amritsar district administration mulls opening another food street in Golbagh

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, January 3

After tasting limited success in operating a food street known as Urban Haat in the city, the district administration is contemplating to set up another one in Gol Bagh.

Market watchers are of the opinion that when there are already many food streets functional across the city rolling out delectable dishes at economic rates, it is difficult to offer similar food at those prices here again.

Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori, who also holds the post of Commissioner, Amritsar Municipal Corporation, today visited the Gol Bagh along with officials. After inspecting the place for developing a food street, he said the area was easily accessible to tourists as it was located opposite to the railway station and the Durgiana Temple besides the Golden Temple and the Jallianwala Bagh.

The DC directed the authorities to plan for developing a food street here, seeing the reach of the area. He said that if a food street is built in the area, it can give tourists coming to Amritsar a good place to taste the famous local cuisine. He added that the holy city is the centre of attraction for most travellers in the country and tourists like to enjoy the local cuisine.

Harjit Singh, a local confectioner, said already there were countless food streets serving authentic Punjabi cuisine at economical rates that eating joints set up by the government can hardly compete with. He added that the food street set up inside the Urban Haat project did not deliver the desired result of bringing Amritsar’s popular food joints under one umbrella. This was the main theme when the then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had inaugurated the project in May 2016. Apparently, various popular eating joints supposed to have their outlets on the premises did not find it economically viable to serve cuisines at rates which their outlets in the city had already been selling.

The Amritsar Development Authority (ADA) had sublet the Urban Haat to a private firm in November 2018 in exchange for an annual sum running in lakhs. Local store owners dishing out choicest dishes cannot afford to sell dishes at a competitive rate after paying hefty annual amount to a company. This is the reason that only branded eating joints could afford to open their stores inside the Urban Haat.

The then SAD-BJP government in the state had restored and revamped the abandoned 124-year-old colonial-era building of Victoria Jubilee Hospital in consultation with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) to attract tourists in 2015 to set up the first food street in the city on the lines of Lahore’s food street. The 4.5 acre site was said to have 32 halls and 20 kitchens, a gym, spa, food court, craft bazaar and meeting rooms after the government spent about Rs 6.5 crore on the project.