VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada hoteliers have expressed concern over their business turning unviable with authorities permitting night food courts from 8:00 p.m. onwards unlike earlier timing of 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.
A senior Greater Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (GVMC) official too pointed out that while they have earmarked stalls at Eat Street for food vendors, many are starting their business at 6:30 p.m. itself and continuing till 2:00 a.m. Moreover, they leave a mess that makes cleaning up tough for the municipality in the morning.
Hoteliers are sore that when nearly 50–60 of their hotels are located in and around Indira Gandhi Stadium road, about 60–100 stalls are being set up at the Eat Street to sell hot non-vegetarian food, south Indian tiffins, and other food items and ice creams. The prices of food items at Eat Street are lesser. So people automatically get attracted to them.
Hoteliers claim they are losing business of ₹10–15 lakh per day as per conservative estimates, while the state government is losing the corresponding GST revenue worth of about ₹2.50 crore per annum. In addition, state government is also incurring indirect revenue loss by way of property tax, trade license fee, garbage tax, labour fee, water charges, food license fee and income tax.
Night food courts had started at Vijayawada in December, 2014 to help travellers coming from other places by buses, trains, cars and other means of transport to find food. The timings of these courts had been from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. The recent change in their timings has become a bone of contention.
Taking up cudgels against Eat Street vendors, hoteliers maintain that they ensure supply of quality food by using all raw materials that meet the norms of food safety and standards. But there is no supervision on what the small vendors do, which could be harmful for the health of people.
Hoteliers suggest that the state government allow night food courts from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. and permit regular hotels and restaurants to remain open up to 12:00 midnight, instead of closing business at 11:00 p.m. This would mean regular visitors can visit hotels and restaurants and those who come late into the city can have their food in night courts.
Vijayawada Hotel Owners Association president P. Ravi Kumar said, “Our business has become unviable with night food courts starting their business from 8:00 p.m., as people are rushing there because food is available at a relatively cheap price. We invest a lot of money in establishing hotels and restaurants and pay a host of taxes while running them. Street food vendors have upset our business. We want night food courts permitted only late in night as per previous practice.”
Vijayawada city police commissioner Kanthi Rana Tata said, “We want night food courts closed early, as we are getting complaints of street fights and road accidents under influence of alcohol. There are also cases of mobile phones being snatched from people at night food courts. We will examine timings once again to avoid any trouble to various stakeholders.”
