City street food lovers to soon get their favourites delivered home

CHENNAI: Street food lovers in the city will no longer have to venture out to get their favourite dishes as they will be delivered at their doorstep with the Greater Chennai Corporation deciding to train street vendors in the online retail business.

According to a Chennai Corporation official, under this initiative, around 50 street vendors would be trained on a pilot basis.

“The Central government has launched an initiative to introduce door delivery of food items prepared and sold by street vendors in five cities, including Chennai. This is to boost street vendors business and aiding them to compete with established firms. The Centre also signed an MoU with a private food delivery aggregator in this regard,” the official said.

The official added that the civic body would select street vendors registered with the Chennai Corporation. At present, 27,195 street vendors are registered with the civic body. They also have Corporation ID cards.

“Apart from the pilot project, the Central government has announced Rs10,000 bank loan to street vendors affected by the lockdown. We will also coordinate with the banks so that the vendors are benefited. We have also distributed the State government’s relief fund of Rs 1,000 to over 14,000 street vendors,” he added.

Meanwhile, the civic body would rope in the Food Safety Department in training the street vendors on safety and sanitation while selling food items online.