Why a push for cleaner air is bad news for Mumbai’s iconic pao

The crowd starts gathering at Manjunath Gowda’s street-food stall outside a government office in suburban Mumbai every work day, starting from 7 am.

The customers are there to fuel their day with a quick bite of the city’s iconic street snacks – vada pao, samosa pao, pao bhaji. A key element of all of these dishes is the soft, fluffy loaf of bread known as pao.

“Without pao, our business is nothing,” said one of Gowda’s assistants. Gowda’s stall uses hundreds of loaves of pao every day.

But the signature food of Mumbai’s street might be in for a change – in flavour and cost.

In an effort to curb rising air pollution, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has asked approximately 650 city bakeries that are older than 50 years to replace their wood-fired or charcoal ovens with electric ones.

Owners of the establishments say that this will result in the golden-crusted pao losing the distinctive taste that comes from being baked on wood. Moreover, the expensive transition will force them to increase the price of bread – from Rs 3 for a loaf of pao now to perhaps Rs 4 or Rs 5.

Customers are concerned about this too. Waiting at Gowda’s stall for his vada pao, Sukhwinder Singh was not happy about the...

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