Food truck business in Madhapur loses steam, blame it on traffic curbs

HYDERABAD: The food truck business in Madhapur, which entered the Hyderabad market in June 2015, seems to have lost its sheen with numbers having dropped in the last few months.Courtesy: Traffic restrictions, opening of drive-ins and demonetisation, which impacted the revenue model of truck owners. Strategically parked in clo se proximity to offices of multinational conglomerates in Jubilee Hills, Madhapur and Gachibowli, where the information technology crowd usually working the graveyard shift is found, food trucks had an array of offerings.Within two years of its existence, from merging two businesses to one, shutting doors and vanishing from the scene, profit in food trucks has suffered a lot.
Bhagirath MP , owner of Yummpy's, a food truck which was operational for nearly a year, is one among those who recently sold his food truck. “Due to restrictions imposed by traffic police, we could not run our business smoothly at Madhapur. Since there was no designated location offered to truck owners, parking was a major hurdle,“ said Bhagirath, who found better revenue model in running stalls at educational institutions and corporate offices.
In view of traffic congestion, the Cyberabad traffic police had started regulating the food truck business in March 2016 following which many had sought applications to seek permission. However, officials too have observed a drop in number of applications received in the last few months. “We have not received any fresh applications to start a food truck in the last six months. In the past, we had even seized few trucks which were running illegally . Therefore, those who could not fulfil norms have seem to have wrapped up their businesses,“ said AR Srinivas, deputy commissioner of police (traffic) at Cyberabad.
Competition in the IT corridor also turned to be a culprit as many shifted their base to other parts of the city. “Two years back, police allowed food trucks to operate till mid-night.But now, cops force trucks to shut shops by 12 am. We have decided to shift our base to Mettuguda where we've received better response,“ said Manish Reddy , co-founder of Aahaar.