The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Monday said it had entered into an MoU with Swiggy to on board street food vendors on its online food-delivery platform, aimed at giving these vendors access to more consumers.
Initially, MoHUA and Swiggy will run a pilot programme by on boarding 250 vendors across five cities – Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Indore and Varanasi. The street vendors will be assisted in getting PAN and FSSAI registration, trained in app usage, menu digitisation, pricing, hygiene and packaging best practices, the ministry said.
Once the pilot is successfully completed, the initiative, a part of Prime Minister Street Vendor’s Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme, will be expanded across the country in phases.
“During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, where physical distancing is the key to check its spread, this novel initiative aims to radically transform the business of street vendors across cities, by facilitating them to receive orders and serve customers using online mode of business,” the statement added.
It further pointed out that for this first-of-its-kind initiative, MoHUA has coordinated with the key stakeholders, including municipal corporations, FSSAI, Swiggy as well as GST officials to ensure that necessary prerequisites were completed for this initiative.
The PM SVANidhi scheme for providing affordable working capital loan to street vendors aims to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors, who had been vending on or before March 24, 2020.
