Kakinada Municipal Corporation has received a ₹4 crore sanction from the Central government to establish food courts under the PM SVANidhi scheme, with a site identified on Wharf Road and encroachments removed to prepare the land for the project.
The initiative is intended to create business opportunities for poor beneficiaries and formalise a space for food-based street vending in the Andhra Pradesh city. The corporation selected the Wharf Road site, after which employees from its town planning and revenue departments cleared encroachments from the area, according to a report by Deccan Chronicle.
Corporation commissioner N.V.V. Satyanarayana said Kakinada was the only city in Andhra Pradesh selected for the national initiative under the PM SVANidhi scheme. The statement places the project within a wider Central government effort to support street vendors through urban livelihood opportunities, while giving the municipal corporation a role in preparing and managing the designated site.
The ₹4 crore allocation is the first major publicly reported step towards creating the food courts. The available information does not specify the number of food stalls, the expected completion date, the design of the facility, or the process through which beneficiaries will be allotted spaces. Those details will determine how the project translates the sanction into operating businesses.
The choice of Wharf Road also makes land management central to the project’s implementation. The municipal departments’ removal of encroachments has cleared the identified area, but the food courts will still require the corporation to establish the final layout, operating arrangements and beneficiary framework. The source report does not provide details on whether existing vendors from the cleared site will be included in the new facility or how their transition will be handled.
For Kakinada’s urban economy, the project links street-vendor livelihoods with the use of municipal land. Food vending is often dependent on access to busy public locations, but designated food courts can also require clear rules on allocation, hygiene, waste management and daily operations. None of those operational provisions has yet been announced in the information available about the sanction.
Residents have welcomed the development and expressed hope that the food courts will provide livelihood opportunities to poor beneficiaries. Their response reflects the project’s stated purpose, but the number of people who will benefit will depend on the corporation’s eventual implementation plan.
The next steps are expected to involve the municipal corporation taking forward the Wharf Road project after the site clearance. The corporation has not yet announced a construction schedule, the final number of food courts or the date on which vendors will begin operating from the facility.