Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh.
Credit: DH Photo
A 3 sq. km. rainfed lake created in 1958, the Sukhna lake and its surroundings in Chandigarh is a picturesque beauty and one of the best tourist places to visit in the city.
To add to its tourism value, a new 'Pizza ATM' has been installed near the lake. First-of-its-kind in north India, the 'Pizza ATM' prepares pizzas in just three minutes, which was installed by the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO).
According to a report by The Indian Express, CITCO officials told that the pizza vending machine, which was installed last month, is the only functional one in the country.
Founder & CEO at iMatrix Group of Companies (iMatrix World Wide) Dr Rohit Shekhar Sharma, the licensee who runs the pizza vending machine, told the publication, "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."
Earlier the iMatrix World Wide had installed a similar machine at a Mumbai railway station after the Covid pandemic, but the response tapered, and the company had to shut down the kiosk.
About the pizza kiosk at Sukhna Lake, Sharma told the publication, "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."
He also 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."
"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. At any given point of time, the machine can prepare up to seven pizza bases with toppings," Sharma added, according to the publication.
CITCO officials told the publication that since the Sukhna Lake witnesses a large crowd of tourists, demanding snacks of various cuisines, the pizza ATM was allowed to be installed near the lake.
Sharma said, "The pizza ATM concept has been picked up from Europe and it generates all vegetarian pizzas of different varieties."
Sharma also said that earlier his company had procured a Chinese machine which even prepared the dough and sprinkled the toppings. But the technical support for the machine and the availability of its parts became a problem.
CITCO said that the licensee (Sharma) would be responsible for meeting the operational expenses to run the entire pizza ATM, including the cost of staff hiring, staff uniforms, staff's training and other necessary expenses.
According to the publication, the CITCO said, "The maintenance or 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."
Ensuring cleanliness in and around the pizza kiosk is also the responsibility of the licensee, the CITCO added.