Revamp: WCLA has big plans for Fort Road Food Street

LAHORE:

The Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) has developed a management plan for the Fort Road Food Street.

The WCLA will revise prices of dishes at the Food Street restaurants, ensure high quality food is served and introduce more traditional dishes to menus.

It also aims to promote local artists and performing arts and improve the parking system near the food street. Hygiene standards will be strictly monitored at the food street. The chefs will be required to wear gloves, clean clothes and hairnets. They will be provided uniforms and name tags. Failure to do so will attract warnings and heavy fines. The restaurants consistently failing hygiene standards would be closed.

The WCLA will ensure the kitchens are washed every night before closure. It will arrange workshops for cooks at five star hotels.

Sanitation workers, solid waste management staff and restaurant owners are being briefed and trained in dengue prevention measures. Artist Iqbal Hussain, the owner of Cooco’s Den, said that he had hoped to see a marked improvement when the WCLA took over the food street. He said WCLA officers were strict in terms of cleanliness and food quality.

He said restaurants had never been trained on hygiene standards before.

“The renovation of the Food Street will be a dream come true for many of us,” he said. Shakil Shah of Qasim Haveli restaurant told The Express Tribune that over the last few years, restaurant owners had faced many problems.

He said the electricity crisis, poor infrastructure, poor disposal of solid waste and poor hygiene had been their greatest concerns.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2013.