PANAJI
Fish is staple food for most Goans but it hardly finds place in street food menus, at least not as prominently as a chicken xacuti or a 'ross omlette' does.
This scenario could soon change and 'fish' get its due in Goa's street food options, should an innovative plan of the State government's Fisheries Department to bring fish, both fresh and pre-cooked, to your street on e-wheels, clicks.
Starting on Monday (Narial Poornima), the Department is launching this initiative with the first of dozens of e-rickshaws hitting the streets with fresh fish for sale.
The e-rickshaw fitted with both solar power as well as electric charging options, have refrigerated units to ensure the stock remains fresh and unspoilt.
According to Director of Fisheries, Shamila Monteiro, the first such fish selling e-rickshaw will be launched on Monday and the Department hopes to have at least 10 of them on the roads by August-end.
By the end of this year (December) hopefully fifty e-rickshaws will be selling fish across Goa, she said.
That's not all. These e-rickshaws will also have a compartment through which fried fish and other pre-cooked seafood dishes can also be sold.
Another fisheries official said the plan is to have these e-rickshaws sell fresh fish from dawn and switch to selling cooked seafood from dusk.
The official said, the nitty-gritties of the scheme including who will be eligible to apply for these e-rickshaws and other modalities have still not been finalised but the Department expects to complete the process very soon and publicly invite Goans to apply.
The Fisheries Department has for decades attempted to ramp up the sale of fish through various schemes. Back in the 1980s, the department ration-sold fish at its premises in the capital city, asking buyers to bring along their 'ration cards' to be eligible to queue up and buy.
More recently it had promoted sale of fish on bicycles providing subsidies to fund purchases of cycles fitted with refrigerated-boxes to store the fish but all its past efforts achieved moderate success.
However, with this new and innovative initiative that involves sale of not just fresh fish, but fried fish, possibly a 'reichado bangda' and a variety of other traditional Goan fish preparations like fish-curry, prawn or fish balchao, the chances of success are promising, possibly making fish achieve the iconic space in Goa's food culture just as the legendary 'fish-and-chips' did in that of London.
