Eating out in Mumbai is literally eating out on the streets where hundreds of food stalls dish out a variety of simple and exotic food to the hungry Mumbaiite who can get a quick, sumptuous, hot meal for a song.

But all this will soon change since the civic authorities are hell-bent on cleaning up the city.
In a month's time, all food sellers with hand-carts, small stalls or with just a table set up on the pavement - most of them illegal - will be evicted from the pavements, street corners, near railway stations, schools, colleges and just about anywhere where they can get a flow of customers.

Moreover, "even the legal ones registered with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will not be allowed to cook on the streets but only sell pre-cooked food and that, too, not after 10 pm," Chandrashekhar Rokade, Deputy Municipal Commissioner told Gulf News.

He says he is only implementing Supreme Court and Bombay High Court order which should have come into force a long way back in 1985. If that is the case, "it's a big loss for all of us," says Charlotte Eliezer, a young executive working in a foreign bank.

Why do hundreds of office-goers, workers, students and just about anyone moving around this bustling, fast-paced city hunger for a 'masala chai', a Manchurian dosa or a grilled sandwich from a roadside vendor?

"It's good, tasty food that comes fast and cheap. But the best part is it's exciting, gives us the freedom to move from stall to stall and try out anything although my favourite is 'pani puri'," says Eliezer.

Her colleague, Priya, relishes the thought of a multi-course meal from a choice of soups to dishes like chicken Manchurian, chicken rolls, a choice of paneer, vegetable or cheese dosas and grilled sandwiches to be completed with flavoured ice creams, kulfi, falooda, or freshly cut fruits, all available from street vendors.

Though the city has for long thrived on the regular junk food of 'bhel puri'‚ 'vada pav'‚ 'pani puris' and 'pav bhaji', the innovative food seller has stirred up all kinds of food to attract customers in recent years.

"What we enjoy most is that it is all cooked in front of you and served steaming hot," says Eliezer. Rokade thinks that people should start eating in railway canteens, numerous restaurants across the city and even at eating outlets in cinema theatres.

"There is no such thing as a poor man's food," says Rokade, as most of these customers are not just middle class but even well-to-do executives and families. "If all of them are upset about the BMC's plan, the aggrieved parties could appeal to the courts," he says.

The BMC has been regularly receiving complaints from residents about the nuisance created by these food hawkers who have no business to occupy roads and pavements meant for the public, he says.

"It isn't just that. Why should they cook on the roads and leave a mess everywhere? People in Mumbai are suffering from various diseases by eating road side food prepared in unhygienic conditions. They manage to serve a line of customers the whole day by washing plates in a bucket of water," says Rokade.

Even liquor is served in some stalls in the night, he avers. Another fan who swears by food hawked on the streets remarks that neither restaurants nor women at home can prepare such interesting and delectable dishes. Admitting that the roadside food is no way hygienic, "one has to be sensible about it, like not eating dishes with raw ingredients like onions or coconut during the height of summer or the monsoon."

While eating on streets is a debatable issue for the residents, the hawkers are quite unhappy about being thrown out. "All that we want is a little space to do our business and we'll create no problem," says Ram Chand, a 'bhel puri' vendor. "Where will we go if we are deprived of our livelihood," he asks.

The Bombay Hawkers Union has taken a strong stand on the BMC's determined efforts to get rid of them. Says Vivek Bhatkar, general secretary of the union, "there is severe unemployment and these men are all daily wage earners".

"The BMC must provide some space to all of them and give receipts on payment of fees. Already, we are paying to the police and BMC men who take an illegal hafta (protection money) of Rs30 from the hawkers everyday. This is a work of rich traders, shopkeepers and hoteliers who want to boost their own business."

If the BMC does not heed to their demands, they plan to have an indefinite sit-in protest in front of Rokade's office in Bandra on Monday.