The Coimbatore Corporation will soon complete work on the Ayurveda canteen it was constructing at the main office in Town Hall. According to sources, nearly 70 per cent of the construction work is over and the rest will be completed in the coming days.
Even as the work was progressing, the Corporation had provided training in cooking the Ayurvedic food to the members of the Self-Help Groups. The members attended the three-day programme at a deemed university in the city.
The SHG members tried their hand in preparing all the food items on the timetable. They were now ready to launch the canteen once the work was completed, the sources said.
The Coimbatore Corporation proposed to start the canteen by passing a resolution at its August Council meeting.
The sources said that the Corporation would provide the group members all the kitchen equipment and a month’s provision to start the canteen. The Corporation would rent out the premises and also fix a price for items on the breakfast menu, lunch and evening snack. It would then ask the members to pay the cost of kitchen equipment and the first month’s provision in 12 equal instalments.
The Corporation had planned to start the canteen by offering breakfast and lunch for 200 persons. Depending upon the response, it would either scale down or up the quantity of food cooked.
The canteen would run six days a week and serve karuvepilai idli, avarampoo idli, thulasi idli, thinai idli and samai idli, murungai keerai adai, navadhaniya adai, musumusukkai adai, kali, paniyaram, lunch with rasam, kara kuzhambu, buttermilk and thuvayal.
Meanwhile, the sources said that all the Amma Unavagam in the city were functioning well. The daily expenditure in the budget canteens worked out to Rs. 60,000 – Rs. 65,000 a canteen and the income was 50 per cent of that.
The annual expenditure was around Rs. 3 crore.
The sources also added there was no plan at present to increase the menu or the number of canteens in the city.
