Lucknow, Aug 17 - Lucknow city's 105-year-old internationally known melt-in-the-mouth 'Tunday' kababs is now going corporate.

The launch of Tunday Kababi Private Limited here Monday marks the beginning of a new era for a family which made its humble beginning from a ramshackle kabab-paratha shop in a narrow bylane of Akbari Gate in a corner of Lucknow's walled city, way back in 1905.

The company's founder chairman Mohammad Usman, who has decided to enter into franchise arrangements across the globe, announced here that the first franchise has been awarded to M/S U.S. Eating Point, a modern restaurant set up at a strategic location on the main picnic spot road in Khurram Nagar.

Addressing mediapersons Monday, Usman said: 'The idea behind selecting this location was to bring the famous Tunday kababs to the doorstep of people living in the trans-Gomti area of the city.'

Significantly Usman's next destination is Bangalore, where his friend Abdul Rehman Khan has already sought a franchise arrangement. Rehman, who was here to attend the Lucknow franchisee launch, said: 'We have received tremendous response to the initial feelers that we threw in the market and I am sure Tunday-Bangalore will be a blast.'

It was only after keeping themselves confined to a remote corner in old Lucknow for nine long decades that Usman persuaded his father Haji Rais Ahmad to move out and start a parallel outlet in Aminabad in 1996.