Online food delivery companies like Zomato and Swiggy have started home delivering alcohol in Jharkhand’s capital city, Ranchi. As of now, the service is only limited to one city, however, both the companies have said that the service will soon be available in other cities of the state. The companies are also in talks with other state governments to allow them to deliver alcohol.
As revenues from food delivery dried up, food delivery companies had been long waiting for government approvals to let them deliver alcohol. The companies had forayed into other delivery services like making essentials and grocery available to the customers to keep their businesses running. Since the ban on liquor was lifted during the third phase of the lockdown, these companies had been eyeing on delivering alcohol encashing on social distancing practices.
The recent development comes just days after firing employees due to losses incurred during the lockdowns. In just within a week, Swiggy fired up to 1,100 employees, while Zomato fired 13% of its workforce.
Talking about the new development, Swiggy said, “The service went live in Ranchi today after obtaining necessary approvals from the Jharkhand government, with other major cities in the state launching within a week.”
Swiggy also said that it is in advanced stages of discussions with multiple state governments to provide support with online processing and home delivery of alcohol, which the company can immediately enable by leveraging its existing technology and logistics infrastructure and nationwide presence.
“With due permissions and licences in place, we are starting home delivery of alcohol in Jharkhand,” Gurugram-based Zomato said. “We will go live in Ranchi later today and seven other cities in Jharkhand over the next couple of days.”
To ensure safe delivery of alcohol and in compliance with applicable laws, Swiggy has introduced measures such as mandatory age verification and user authentication to complete deliveries. Customers can complete their instant age verification by uploading a picture of their valid government ID, followed by a selfie which the platform will use for authentication using an AI-powered system.
“All orders will carry a unique OTP which needs to be provided by the customer at the time of delivery. There is also a capping on the order quantity to ensure a customer does not order alcohol above the prescribed limit as per the state law. To avail this service, customers in Ranchi can access the ‘Wine Shops’ category by updating their Swiggy app,” it said.
Zomato will also use similar technology for customers to place alcohol orders. The company said, customers will have to submit a government-approved proof of age to be able to place an order for liquor.
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