Giving an entirely new meaning to large-scale preparation of food, ‘Akshaya Patra’, the free meal programme of Hare Krishna Movement (HKM), Hyderabad, is set to introduce the largest fully automated closed vessel kitchen in Telangana at Narsingi near Kokapet. The kitchen will have machines capable of cooking 800 kilograms of rice in 25 minutes flat and can even retain the food’s aroma.
The ‘Akshaya Patra’ kitchen project, coming up at a cost of Rs. 17.50 crore, will serve piping hot food to nearly one lakh children in 454 government schools in Medak and Ranga Reddy districts. The hi-tech cooking machines are being custom built and imported from Tetra Pak, Sweden to the city.
All one has to do is feed the machines with rice and other raw materials while the rest of the cooking process like mixing, washing, heating, cooling and vacuum treatment will be controlled by computers. “Till now, we were using cauldrons at our Patancheru facility to prepare food for children. The new technology is a big upgrade. We only have to provide inputs and wait for the machine to do its job,” says president, HKM, Hyderabad, Sri Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa.
‘Bhumi Puja’ for kitchen will be taken up within a fortnight and the facility should be up and running in few months. Trial runs to test rice and vegetable cooking and tweaking the machines to suit Indian cooking conditions are complete at Tetra Pak facility in Sweden.
“We can prepare and serve the food to children quickly. Cauldron-based cooking contains a lot of human intervention, which will not be there in the new system,” HKM officials said. The Infosys Foundation and Tata have funded close to Rs. 55 crore for the project. “We are bringing in social investment worth over Rs. 55 crore to Telangana. Nearly Rs. 17.50 crore would be spent on developing the hi-tech kitchen alone. Our revenue-expenditure for the next five years has been met,” the officials added.
FOOD AND NUTRITION
‘Akshaya Patra’ to introduce the largest fully automated closed vessel kitchen at Narsingi near Kokapet
‘Bhumi Puja’ for kitchen will be taken up within a fortnight and the facility to be ready in few months
The kitchen will have machines capable of cooking 800 kilograms of rice in 25 minutes flat
The hi-tech cooking machines are being custom built and imported from Tetra Pak, Sweden to the city
Once rice and other raw materials are fed into the machine, the rest of the cooking process will be controlled by computers
