A FORMER steakhouse could be granted a new lease of life as a chicken restaurant.

An application has been lodged to turn the old Mi’raj steak restaurant in Limbrick Hall, St Andrew’s Street, Blackburn, into a Chickano’s restaurant.

The firm, which was founded in 2011, already has restaurants and takeaways in Batley, Huddersfield, Leeds and Dewsbury, and is also planning to open in Leicester, Bolton and Halifax.

If plans are approved by Blackburn with Darwen Council, it is hoped the new restaurant would create six full-time and 20 part-time jobs.

And managing director of Chickano’s Family, Sajad Hussain, said he was hopeful the £300,000 new restaurant would be ready to open by August or September at the latest.

The proposed opening hours are between noon and 11pm Monday to Saturday and noon and 10pm on Sundays and bank holidays.

And there will be 13 parking spaces available on site for customers.

Work on converting the restaurant started last month.

Mr Hussain said: “We try to cater for all customer needs so we look at the healthy options as well.

“That’s quite important for a town like Blackburn because it has one of the highest number of takeaways in the UK.

“Our investigations have shown while picking locations that although there is quite a lot of restaurants and takeaways, there’s not a huge amount of diversity.

“There are a lot of fried chicken and pizza shops and they all sell the same type of food – this is something different.

“We feel there’s a lot of competition but we think this can be a success.

“We will spend about £100,000 on kitting out the place and a cost of about £300,000 in total.

“It’s going to be one of the best in Blackburn – we are not cutting any corners.”

Mr Hussain added by early next year, the firm hoped to have as many as 14 restaurants in the UK and there had also been interest from the Middle East. Mi’raj closed last year.

The proposed development is the latest in a string of new eateries set to open in the town, with the conversion of Blakeys into eastZeast set to be completed by June. Plans to turn the old Pitchers bar, which stood empty for almost a decade, into a burger restaurant are also on the cards.