Food trucks, kiosks to supply yummy fish delicacies

Hyderabad: With its message ‘eat fish-enjoy health benefits’, the State government will soon come up with customised vehicles which could serve fish delicacies as per the customer demand at different strategic locations across the State. 

According to official sources, at least 100 vehicles will be deployed at different locations in the city as a pilot project, where the cooked fish which include fried fish, fish curries and other varieties will be served hot to the customers. 

As per the latest proposal from the government to The Telangana State Fishermen Cooperative Societies Federation Ltd, there will be about 1000 vehicles on road in a couple months, which include carriage vehicles supplying fish produce from reservoirs and lakes directly to markets, vehicle for selling raw fish and vehicle for ‘ready to cook fish’ (processed).

One of the important priorities will be to maintain hygiene and to serve the fresh fish or cooked fish to customers. The cutting style includes fillets, steaks and other forms. The fried form, include fry, cutlets, fish fingers, chilli fish and other delicacies. “We shall be providing training to those who are interested in operating the vehicles. 

The training will include style of cutting the fish to cooking of the different fish, which will add value to the produce. They will be trained in making fish cutlets, Manchurian, Biryani and all the popular items,” said a higher official of the Fisheries Department. The department will be spending Rs 10 lakh per each vehicle, where the vehicles will be provided to individuals after thorough verification about their veracity and intention. With expected high produce this year, the officials believe this to be a feasible option to generate revenue and employment in the State. 

Kiosk also proposed 
Apart from these vehicles, the government also had proposed to come up with ‘ready to eat fish’ kiosks at market places. The kiosks would be run PPP model (Public Private Partnership), where the organisers would be given a chance to sell the fish items under the brand name of the Federation. This time the marketing of the fish is being done by highlighting its health benefits. 

Besides emphasising, the protein and nutrition, these kiosks will highlight other benefits like source of Vitamin D, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, low fat and other health benefits including improving vision, memory and immunity. “Tenders will be flouted by the department shortly for the kiosk and vehicles,” added the official.      

It may be mentioned here that compared to 22 crore in 2016, the State government released 52 crore fish seeds in the lakes in 2017, most of which will come to harvest in the summer. The government has already earmarked Rs 1000 crore for fish seed development, equipment for fishing, marketing to boost the revenue of those relying on fishing industry.