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Journalism of Courage
There is a sudden craze among the people of Chandigarh and tourists to visit Sukhna lake and it is not just to lap up the picturesque beauty of the waterbody and its surrounding. Instead, it’s the new ‘Pizza ATM’, which prepares pizzas in just three minutes, installed by the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO).
Speaking to The Indian Express, CITCO officials said the pizza vending machine, the first-of-its-kind in north India and currently the only functional one in the country, was installed sometime last month. Prior to this, a railway station in Mumbai got a similar machine.
The licensee, Dr Rohit Sharma, of the iMatrix World Wide, which runs the pizza kiosk, said, “We got the concept of the Pizza ATM from France. Since it was expensive, we decided to build the machine all by ourselves at our factory in Mohali.”
iMatrix World Wide had introduced a similar machine at a railway station in Mumbai but after Covid, the response tapered and the company had to shut down the kiosk.
On the pizza vending machine at Sukhna Lake, Sharma said, “The vending machine, on an average, is currently preparing around 100 pizzas a day. During the weekends, the number goes up to anything between 200-300.”
On the cost of pizzas Sharma said, “The prices of our ATM pizzas are about 35 per cent less than that of Domino’s and Pizza Hut. Like a medium paneer tikka pizza is just about Rs 340 while the same in Domino’s is Rs 560.”
He added, “Once a person enters the kind of pizza he would like to have, a robotic arm picks up the pizza base with the requisite topping, bakes it and serves it in just three minutes.”
Sharma also said, “At any given point of time, the machine can prepare up to seven pizza bases with toppings.”
On the choice of place, CITCO officials said since Sukhna Lake sees quite a rush of tourists, and a considerable demand for snacks of various cuisines, the pizza vending machine was allowed to be installed near the lake.
“The pizza ATM concept has been picked up from Europe. It generates all vegetarian pizzas of different varieties,” said Sharma.
Sharma further said his firm had initially procured a Chinese machine which even prepared the dough and sprinkled the toppings. However, technical support for the machine and the availability of spare parts became an issue.
According to the terms and conditions, the CITCO said the licensee will be responsible for meeting the operational expenses to run the entire pizza kiosk, including the cost of hiring staff to run it, their uniform, training and other expenses.
“The maintenance/ repair of the machine is also the sole responsibility of the licensee. So much so, the licensee has also been asked to install lighting, music system and digital display system (for convenience of customers) at the space meant for the pizza kiosk,” the CITCO said.
The CITCO also said that it is the responsibility of the licensee to ensure cleanliness around the pizza vending machine.
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