CHENNAI: For the first time, the Tamil Nadu Livestock Development Corporation (TNLDC) has set up a "Livesquare" in the State. The shop is maintained by a private enterprise that sells high-quality varieties of pasture-raised raw meat, fish, and cooked dishes at the Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services campus, Saidapet. This initiative has been taken to utilise unused land inside hospital campuses for revenue augmentation.
A senior official in the TNLDC told DT Next, "In the first phase, this Livesquare project has been launched at the veterinary services department, Saidapet and Padappai campuses. It's a home for meat lovers."
All types of poultry and animal meats are being sent from the Kattankulathur farm. "After seeing the response from the public, the project will be expanded to other places," said the official.
Across the State, the department runs 2,740 veterinary dispensaries, 153 veterinary hospitals, 30 veterinary clinician centres, and 840 veterinary sub-centres. Of these, many campuses contain unutilised land or buildings.
"This project will target crowd-pulling veterinary services campuses. The existing buildings will be leased out, while vacant land will either be developed by the corporation or by the beneficiary with official approval," added the senior official.
The Livesquare sales centre at Saidapet, run by Fortune Business Enterprise, was inaugurated on April 14 this year. A Chandini, director of the enterprise, shared that the shop functions all day in a week, from 7 am to 7 pm. "We provide three types of sales for the public, such as frozen raw meats and fish, ready-to-eat meats and cloud kitchen. The orders placed using our website, www.kariexpress.com, are delivered to their doorstep. Currently, door deliveries are available only to Saidapet and Nandanam."
The centre serves a variety of meat, including mutton, sheep, beef and pork. Whereas poultry meats, such as country chicken, duck, quail, turkey and other varieties are available for sale in 250-gram and 500-gram packets.
Also, fish varieties like Seer Fish, Indian Salman, Trevally, Catla, prawn and other varieties are available.
Bulk-cutted meats from the Kattankulathur farm are sent to Madras Veterinary College; from there, evenly sliced meats are packed and sent to the centre. "The meat stocks will be loaded once every two weeks, and the frozen meat will be valid for a year. The meat packets are available at an affordable price, with a discount," added Chandini.