Following the popularity of ‘Amma Unavagam’, the budget
restaurants begun by the Chennai Corporation in the city, the civic body
now has a new initiative in mind.

It is planning to
commission similar restaurants to help people who visit the city from
other parts of the State and country, and intends to set them up at
crowded hubs here such as the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus, Chennai
Central railway station and the Rajiv Gandhi Government General
Hospital, among others.

The Corporation’s health
department has asked zonal officials to identify suitable locations such
as these to commission the budget restaurants. These restaurants will
have relatively higher prices, but will still be for affordable
visitors, and will serve healthy food. Prices have not been decided as
yet, but zonal officials have started to study locations where people
from other cities, towns or villages gather in large numbers.

The
most important beneficiaries are likely to be visitors from
less-privileged economic backgrounds, who come to referral hospitals in
the city. The Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, which receives
the largest number of patients from across the State, has 2,722 beds and
they are permanently occupied. On an average, the hospital receives
around 10,000 visitors who come to see their relatives or friends,
hospital dean V. Kanagasabai said. A budget restaurant would supplement
the hospital’s much sought-after canteen, he added.

The
other three tertiary care hospitals are also badly equipped food-wise.
An official at the Government Royapettah Hospital said of the total
number of patients it receives only 10 per cent are from the city. Since
the hospital caters to a large population, it desperately needs a
budget restaurant.

Chennai Central station also
receives a large load of visitors, with at between one to two lakhs
persons thronging the premises every day.