A kilometre away from the newly opened Ram Temple site in Ayodhya, Dinesh Yadav’s Domino’s pizza shop is bustling with customers just days after it opened. The growing demand for Western cuisine, despite the constraint of having to offer a meat-free menu, points to the evolving culinary preferences in the temple town.
“On the first day itself, I did a business of around Rs 5,000,” Yadav said on telephone from Ayodhya, 140 km southwest of Lucknow. “The construction work is still on. We cannot cater to the customers in large numbers yet. We will do well.”
Yadav’s confidence is well-founded. His Domino’s outlet is the first in the vicinity of the new Ram Temple, drawing millions of visitors from across India every week.
Businesses, particularly in food and hospitality, are expecting a windfall as the town transforms into a major religious destination, rivalling other major pilgrimage hubs, after the opening of the Ram mandir in January by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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About 8 km from the Ram Temple, Awadh Kumar Verma, who manages the Pizza Hut outlet in the Mall of Awadh, laments the missed opportunity of not having a shop closer to the temple.
“Pizza Hut opened this shop around three months back when consecration dates were announced. We are looking for a shop at Ram Path because the crowd is in that area. We are having a fairly good business, but getting a shop there would set the cash counter ticking,” Verma said.
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Pizza Hut, he said, will serve only vegetarian food in Ayodhya. “Though we are outside the Panch Kosi Parikrama Marg, we do not serve non-veg food items here. The menu is an `all-veg’ affair,” he said.
Ayodhya strictly prohibits serving meat and liquor within the Panch Kosi Marg. The Panch Kosi Parikrama is a 15-km pilgrimage circuit around Ayodhya, visiting sacred sites linked to the Ramayana.
“We have offers from big food chain outlets to set up their shops in Ayodhya. We welcome them with open arms, but there is only one restriction, that they should not serve non-veg food items inside the panch Kosi,” said Vishal Singh, a government official in Ayodhya.
Singh said those serving non-vegetarian food have set up outlets outside 14 Kosi Parikrama Marg.
“KFC has set up its unit at Ayodhya-Lucknow highway because we do not allow non-vegetarian food items here. We are ready to provide even KFC a space if it decides to sell only vegetarian items,” he said.
Ayodhya’s prohibition isn’t unique. Haridwar also enforces a similar ban within city limits, with outlets such as KFC located outside the city on the Haridwar-Roorkee highway.
According to state government estimates, Ayodhya is likely to see traffic of 10-12 lakh people a week till Ram Navami on April 17. But visitors are expected to remain high even after that.
Sharad Kapoor, President of Faizabad Hotel Association (FHA), said the profile of visitors coming to Ayodhya has changed substantially. “The first few days, we had people from neighbouring districts who came to have a darshan, but now people from other parts of the state are also coming to Ayodhya,” he said.
“As these people are coming from different parts of the country, they are well conversant with pizzas and burgers. Therefore, the food chain outlets famous for pizzas and burgers are making a beeline to set up their shops in Ayodhya now,” Kapoor said.
Kamlesh Srivastava, the Bharatiya Janata Party city president of Ayodhya, said that 311 Aastha Special Trains will bring devotees across the country to Ayodhya. The administration is making arrangements so that they can get food to their taste. Therefore, they are inviting bid food chains here,” he said.
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The Ayodhya Development Authority plans to set up a food plaza at Chaudhary Charan Singh Ghat, for which construction work has started, and the outlets will be ready by February, Srivastava said.
Abhishek Singh, a senior official at Uttar Pradesh state’s industry department, said apart from global brands, some fast food restaurants are offering regional specialities such as baati-chokha, a popular dish in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
“With the surge in temple tourism, Bisleri and Haldiram have proposals to set up their units in and around Ayodhya. Besides, many companies like Parle are strengthening their distribution channels of food chain outlets, particularly packaged water, biscuits and namkeen,” he said.
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