 "Delhi Dy CM and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal before presenting the annual budget 2022-23 in Delhi Assembly, in New Delhi (Photo: PTI)")
Aiming to strengthen the night-time economy and promote the food and beverages industry, the Arvind Kejriwal government on Saturday said it will provide land for cloud kitchens, redevelop major food hubs, and bring in a food truck policy in the national capital.
Presenting the Budget for the financial year 2022-23, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the government is preparing a policy to allow food trucks to operate at designated places in the city from 8 pm to 2 am.
"This will strengthen the night economy of Delhi and new employment opportunities will be created, Sisodia said.
He said cloud kitchens in Delhi are emerging as a strong part of the restaurant industry and are growing at a rate of more than 20 per cent every year.
At present, there are more than 20,000 cloud kitchens in Delhi which provide direct employment to around two lakh people and indirect employment to 50,000 people, the deputy CM said during his budget speech.
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A cloud kitchen is a restaurant with no physical storefront or simply a delivery-only restaurant.
In such a set-up, people operate in a commercial, centralised kitchen where they partner up with third-party delivery service apps such as Swiggy and Zomato to distribute their food to the public.
"Cloud kitchens are one of the sectors that support the night-time economy. With a huge potential for revenue generation, this sector creates a large number of both direct and indirect job opportunities, he said.
Considering the immense potential for growth and in order to maximize the potential of this industry, it is planned to provide land to cloud kitchens with plug and play facilities and ease the number of licenses and regulations in the Budget 2022-23.
This industry also has the potential to create 42,000 new job opportunities within the next 5 years, Sisodia noted.
He said that new policies to promote traders and employees of the food and beverages industry in Delhi will create more than 60,000 jobs in the next five years.
Major food hubs of Delhi will be identified, redeveloped and promoted as a social and cultural heritage of Delhi, the deputy CM said.
The Delhi government is also looking to invest in the retail, and food and beverage sectors, which are growing at a rate of 25 per cent and have the potential to generate high-income jobs, he said.
A Grade A retail and food hub facility will be developed in Delhi so that the premium shopping experience of world class brands and retail facilities for which people visit NCR can be availed in the capital itself.
These hubs will be developed using the land available at bus depots and terminals as these are major places that are easy to access and areas with a large number of consumers in Delhi, Sisodia said.
With an aim of creating 20 lakh new jobs in the next five years, Sisodia presented a Rs 75,800-crore "Rozgar Budget" for the financial year 2022-23 which focuses on setting up an electronic city and promoting night economy, retail and wholesale markets in the national capital.
The government has identified seven priority sectors for job creation -- food and beverages, logistics and supply chain, travel and tourism, entertainment, construction, real estate and green energy.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
