Delhi govt to set up Atal canteens near construction sites, slums

In the 2025-26 Budget, CM Rekha Gupta, who holds the finance portfolio, allocated ₹100 crore for the canteens

New Delhi

Delhi CM Rekha Gupta at a Shalimar Bagh temple. (PTI)

The Delhi government will open subsidised canteens, named Atal Canteen after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, near major construction sites and slums for easy access to people in need of nutritious food, chief minister Rekha Gupta said on Saturday.

In an interaction with mediapersons during a visit to a temple in Shalimar Bagh on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti, she said that 100 such canteens will be opened across the Capital.

“We will open 100 Atal canteens so that no one remains hungry in Delhi. We are planning to open these canteens near construction sites and slums where automatic machines would be installed to provide food,” the CM said.

In a phone conversation with HT, she said: “The Atal canteens will be opened in Delhi before December 25, which is the birth anniversary of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.”

She also inaugurated an automatic chapati maker machine, which can make 1,200 chapatis in an hour, at a private social organisation in Shalimar Bagh. “The rotis made by the machines will be used to prepare food packets which will be distributed among the needy persons,” she told HT.

Setting up subsidised canteens was a key pre-poll promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to slum cluster residents. In the 2025-26 Budget, CM Rekha Gupta, who holds the finance portfolio, allocated ₹100 crore for the canteens. Atal canteens are already operational in BJP-ruled Haryana.

A Delhi government official, requesting anonymity, said: “Food will not be free but highly subsidised, which means that people will have to pay a nominal price. According to initial plans, food may cost around ₹5 per plate. A final decision will be taken on the approval by the competent authority.”