Techies' lifestyle results in a spurt of drive-ins in Cyberabad

HYDERABAD: With nightlife and midnight cravings becoming a ritual for techies, more and more drive-in restaurants have sprung up in the Cyberabad area. Their number skyrockets in and around Hitec City and Madhapur. 

Drive-ins offer multiple options under one roof without the need to alight from the vehicle. Customers drive in while a staffer takes the order, directs it to concerned eatery and serves food in the vehicle. 

There are drive-ins with sit-out areas. From Biryani to Pizza and Goli-soda to Milk shakes — the choices are aplenty.

Techies flock to these places from Monday to Saturday. It is families’ turn on Sundays. A few drive-ins close business only after 4 am.  

A techie, M. Santosh Reddy, said, “My shift ends at 12 midnight and I prefer to hang out at drive-ins before heading to my room. When there are cricket matches, drive-in is the place we prefer to watch it on the screen.” A few of them also have sport areas and benches to watch TV.

Aided by giant screens, drive-ins tend to play sporting events or movies or host DJ typically. 

Mr Gowtham Chowdhary, owner of The Street, a drive-in at Madhapur, said, “The rush hour begins only after 10 pm and lasts till 3 am. We tend to open all shops by 6 am. There are a lot of people doing night shifts and there is traffic constantly moving on weekdays. It is a mixed crowd.”

However, on Sundays the young crowd is less and the drive-ins close by 1.30 am. However, the place to accommodate so many cars at a time is a worrying factor. To tide over this, some drive-ins are offering the valet parking. “The valet parking is heavily utilised. We are able to manage orders even on the busiest days,” a waiter at Kings Drive-in said.

Despite parking issues, drive-ins continue to increase on yearly basis.  
Drive-ins are more like a recreational place and do not serve alcohol. So, there is no illegal activity. The crowd is niche, so consequently there are hardly any security concerns.