Now, residents of New Delhi area will enjoy the comfort of getting vegetables and fruits at their doorstep. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) will soon start mobile vending of fruits and vegetable in eco-friendly vehicles in areas within its limits. The agency has carried forward the plan in collaboration with Mother Dairy’s Safal enterprise.
This environment-friendly initiative, the civic body believes, will help in reducing overcrowding and garbage accumulation in several residential areas. “This step has been taken to avoid congestion and dirtying of places. Weekly markets in residential colonies lead to congestion due to stalls and public. More importantly, what these vendors leave behind is a pain to the eyes of an onlooker. They dump all the leftovers or unwanted stock there itself, leaving the place filthy. We hope this initiative will help in people opting to buy vegetables at their doorstep and in keeping the city clean,” said Jalaj Shrivastava, Chairperson, NDMC.
The vehicle, meant to deliver fruits and vegetables at 50 locations in the New Delhi area, will be battery-operated thereby making it pollution-free. Some of these places include Parliament Street, Khan Market, lodhi Garden, Supreme Court, Barakhamba Road, Gurudwara Rakab Gunj Road, Sarojini Nagar, Mandir Marg, RMl Hospital and Bengali Market.
“To start with, we will launch 25 such mobile vans, which will deliver at different locations. Each mobile van will serve three locations a day. During the non-vending hours, the van will be stationed at a strategic place from where people can shop. These vans will be equipped with electronic weighing scales and are expected to sell around 200 kilo of fruits and vegetables to nearly 100 customers per day and per point,” informed OP Mishra, Director (Project and Welfare), NDMC. This initiative will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Sunday.
After the implementation of the vending carts, the agency is planning to graduate to plying air conditioned motorised vending carts. “These battery-operated carts will be equipped with Solar EV Hybrid system, which will provide an ambient temperature of up to 20°C. These vans will have a mileage of up to 40 km with a maximum speed of 25 km per hour once they are fully charged,” added Mishra.