Format × City
Open a Dhaba / Casual Highway in Chennai
Highway/roadside, large-batch cooking, truck + family draw.
The Dhaba / Casual Highway × Chennai numbers
Total capex
₹24.88 L
Monthly fixed OPEX
₹2.3 L
Total funding needed
₹32 L
QSR prime rent
₹90–280/sqft
Working capital
₹3.41 L
Based on Forkcast capex dataset (200+ Indian restaurant openings 2023-2026), with T1-tier rent and labour adjustments.
Capex breakdown
| Line | Range (₹ L) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen equipment | 3.99 | Ranges, refrigeration, exhaust, dishwasher, prep, dry storage. |
| Interiors & furniture | 5.17 | Fit-out, false ceiling, lighting, seating, signage. |
| Property deposit | 9.99 | Typically 4–12 months of rent depending on format and location. |
| Licences & approvals | 1.16 | FSSAI, GST, fire NOC, trade licence, signage — state-specific. |
| POS & tech | 0.22 | Petpooja / UrbanPiper hardware + first-year software. |
| Branding & pre-launch marketing | 0.54 | Logo, menu design, soft-launch ads, influencer seeding. |
| Pre-opening inventory | 0.4 | Dry storage, proteins, and opening-week ingredient stock. |
| Working capital (30–45 days) | 3.41 | Bridge aggregator T+7–14 settlement vs vendor cash terms. |
Next steps
Use the free tools to go deeper on the Dhaba / Casual Highway × Chennai setup:
- Full capital estimator for Chennai - toggle formats, edit size
- Chennai cuisine demand heatmap - pick the cuisine before the format
- Viability score - Dhaba / Casual Highway × your cuisine × Chennai
- Licence checklist for tamil nadu
- 90-day survival playbook
FAQ
Common questions
Related reading
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