State Minister, MP launch home delivery service in Bengaluru South division limits

Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka, Member of Parliament from Bengaluru South, Tejasvi Surya and City Mayor Gautham Kumar on Sunday extended a facility of free home delivery of essential items to the Bengaluru South Police Division limits.

The Bengaluru South Police Division limit covers three assembly constituencies - Basavanagudi, Jayanagar and Padmanabhnagar - and certain wards of Chickpet assembly constituency. Citizens from these localities can call the COVID-19 Home Delivery Helpline, set up by the Task Force of MP Tejasvi Surya, on 080 6191 4960.

They may also place their orders by sending a message on the same number. Over 2.5 lakh households residing in these areas can order groceries, medicines, fruits and vegetables through the helpline. The home delivery charges have been waived off currently and the purchased items would be delivered within a day.

"We initially launched a pilot of this service in the Kathriguppe ward. Based on the success of that project, we have extended the service to Bengaluru South Police Division limits," Surya said in a statement.

"We noticed that many citizens continued to venture out to purchase groceries, fruits and vegetables during the lockdown, putting themselves at risk of getting infected by the coronavirus. In order to ensure citizens stay indoors during the COVID-19 lockdown period, we created this platform which provides for the home delivery of essential goods," he added.

Minister R Ashoka said: "Those comfortable with a phone call may call the helpline on 080 61914960. Those who are familiar with WhatsApp can type out their order or upload a photo on the same number."

"We tried to bring the platform closer to the citizens through tools they use daily like phone and WhatsApp instead of developing an app and asking citizens to download them," added Ashoka.

Citizens may also call their regular traders and request for home delivery. If the grocer does not support home delivery, he or she may also call the helpline requesting for the items to be picked up from the shop and delivered. Shops with home delivery may use their delivery executives for the delivery of the purchase.

There are a total of 1,926 shops that are open with which the services have a tie up. These include 958 provision stores, 323 vegetable stores, 479 medical stores, 82 meat stores and 84 other miscellaneous stores.