TSRTC buses to ferry famed Ankapur chicken
TSRTC officials got into an agreement with chef Boya Prathap for supply of Ankapur chicken and soon got down to spread the word around through social media platforms about the facility
Nizamabad: Want to dig into the famed Ankapur chicken, original and authentic at that? Well, the delicious dish is now just a phone call away now and you will get it right from the place of its origin, thanks to a tie-up between Ankapur chicken specialist chef Boya Pratap and the TSRTC.
The TS Road Transport Corporation bus services originating from Armoor in Nizamabad district and headed for destinations such as Hyderabad, Warangal, Karimnagar, Jagitial, Korutla, Metpally, Adilabad, Nirmal, Kamareddy, Ramayanpet, Medchal and other towns and cities in the State carry these chicken parcels based on advance orders placed with Pratap.
Since the dish is prepared and packed by 9 am every day, lunch orders should ideally be placed a day before for destinations like Warangal and Hyderabad since the journey time is around 4 1/2 hours and 4 hours respectively. For destinations close to Armoor (It is just 5 km from Ankapur), lunch orders are taken till afternoon and for dinner parcels for other distant places. The minimum order is a kg of the dish which costs Rs 650 that includes Rs 50 charged by TSRTC as courier charge, and it will serve four persons.
Given the growing popularity of Ankapur chicken, TSRTC officials, who were on the lookout for various avenues of income generation following the drastic drop in revenues on account of the lockdown and the subsequent Covid-19 fear, saw a good opportunity in this business. The TSRTC has already launched parcel and cargo services on directions from Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to augment its income besides using its bus services to send parcels.
The TSRTC officials got into an agreement with Boya Prathap for supply of Ankapur chicken and soon got down to spread the word around through social media platforms about the facility. The message was dial 98484 08003 (Pratap’s mobile number), place the order and pay through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) services like Google Pay or PhonePe. The move hit bull’s eye and orders have since been pouring in for the past one month. The chicken parcel has to be collected by the customer from the bus depot of the city or town from where the order was placed
Pratap, who heads the team of about four families that prepare the dish, says earlier, they were sending about 30 to 35 Ankapur chicken curry parcels a month to Hyderabad, Warangal, Karimnagar, Jagitial, Adilabad, Nirmal, Kamareddy and other places through RTC parcel services. But after the tie-up with TSRTC, the orders had shot up to about 325 a month. “We are seeing a steady increase in orders which is around 25 to 35 during weekdays and 50 to 60 on weekends and holidays,” he told Telangana Today.
“Our dish is very popular because we use desi chicken, quality oil and traditional spices,” he added.
Krishna Murthy, Armoor RTC depot manager, pointing out that this was a unique idea, said they are happy to deliver the original Ankapur chicken to foodies across the State. “Once an order is placed, Pratap issues an LR number and the approximate delivery time. The customer will have to give the LR number at the time of collection at the RTC depot,” he said.
Pratap, overwhelmed with order coming from places that are directly not connected to Armoor bus depot, has appealed to the RTC officials to take up supply of chicken parcels through indirect services so that more and more people get to taste this unique Telangana dish.
Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on Telegram everyday. Click the link to subscribe.
Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter .
