Chennai, Oct 20 (IANS) Residents will have to wait until 2027 to visit the Greater Chennai Corporation’s first food court, with construction of the Rs 4.24-crore facility at Indira Nagar Third Avenue in Adyar progressing well behind its original schedule.

Only about 40 per cent of the project has been completed, more than a year after it was announced. Initially scheduled to welcome visitors during Pongal 2026, the food court missed that deadline and a subsequent opening target in August.

The Corporation is developing the facility on land occupied by an unused shopping complex belonging to the civic body. A portion of the old complex was demolished to make way for the project, with foundation and structural work beginning earlier this year. The food court will accommodate 30 shops in two sizes. Smaller outlets will measure 110 square feet each, while the larger units will cover 220 square feet.

Announced on July 7, 2025, the project was expected to bring food outlets together at a single Corporation-owned location. However, the slow pace of construction has repeatedly pushed back the date on which residents can use the facility. Corporation officials attributed the delay to the 2026 Assembly election and the subsequent change in government.

Structural work on the shops is now expected to be completed by December, according to a senior GCC official.

Completion of the buildings, however, will not immediately pave the way for opening the food court.

The Corporation must also select an operator through a tender process scheduled to begin in January 2027. The civic body has decided to adopt a revenue-sharing arrangement under a public-private partnership model. Instead of directly renting individual shops to restaurant brands, franchises or other food businesses, it will lease the entire facility to a single operator.

The proposed arrangement means the selection of that operator will be a key stage in bringing the project into public use after construction. Although officials have indicated when structural work should end and tendering should begin, they have not specified a firm opening date in 2027.

For residents awaiting the facility, the revised schedule represents another extension of a project originally promised for Pongal this year. Its opening will now depend on both the completion of the remaining construction and the progress of the tendering process, extending the wait beyond the earlier targets.

–IANS

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