101 Indira Canteens open today in city, eat for free on Day one

A total of 101 Indira Canteens, the subsidised eateries, will open on Wednesday. The first canteen will be inaugurated by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Kanakanapalya Main Road in Jayanagar. He will also be among the first to taste the food.

Bengaluru Development Minister KJ George inaugurated the first Indira kitchen, next to Manipal Hospital on Old Airport Road in Konena Agrahara (ward 113) on Tuesday afternoon. Six Indira kitchens will open by Wednesday.

George also launched the Indira Canteen app which helps people to locate the nearest canteen. Speaking to journalists, he hailed the project as a “unique” initiative of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and said 101 canteens had been readied in “just 60 days”. “We could have opened all the 198 canteens (one in each ward) on August 16 but we are facing space problems in some wards as people are opposing the identified place. But we are confident of opening the remaining canteens on October 2,” he said. At Tuesday’s event, a standard operating procedure listing the quality aspects of food and the responsibilities of the caterer was released. As per the SOP, to maintain the quality of food, the caterer must conduct periodic evaluation of the canteens and submit weekly reports to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

At each canteen, people can buy tokens to take combo meals. “Similar to McDonald’s and Domino’s, we have introduced the token system for combo meals. A combo is available both for breakfast and lunch where you get a combination of food. Idlis along with a rice meal such as vangi bath will serve as breakfast combo while rice sambar along with pulao or what is special on that day will serve as lunch combo,” Manoj Rajan, special commissioner, Indira Canteen, said.

People can eat for free at all the canteens on Wednesday. “We expect about 5,000 people to visit each canteen on the first day,” said Rajan.