Door delivery brings in brisk sales for Koyambedu traders

According to a source, the CMDA and the traders have delivered around 20 tonnes on Sunday itself.

“These items were delivered through our own vehicles and for the bulk orders that have packages for 25 families. Apart from this, we are also delivering smaller packages through food delivery firms like Swiggy, Zomato and Dunzo,” the person said.

Due to the increase in demand, the CMDA and the Market Management Committee have decided to introduce ‘bulk combo packs’ for gated communities and residents’ welfare associations. “Initially, we were supplying vegetable packages only for 25 families. From Sunday onwards, we have started taking bulk orders without any limit on the number of families. Gated communities with more than 500 families can also order online and we will send separate packs that will have 16 types of vegetables, which will be enough for a family for one week,” said a trader.

On Sunday, 7.6 tonnes of vegetables were delivered to gated communities. The traders are also receiving around 1,500 orders every day for vegetables and fruits through home delivery aggregators.

The Tamilnadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peramaippu, too, has rolled out around 4,000 tricycles to sell vegetables across the city. A few days ago, the city Corporation had allowed the scrap dealers to sell vegetables by modifying tricycles. It is now planning to roll out around 9,000 such vehicles. “After this initiative, scrap dealers, who were unemployed during the lockdown, are managing to earn money,” AM Vikramaraja, leader of the federation said.

M Sivakumar, a resident of a gated community, said the home delivery option helped skip going out for vegetables, protecting the entire community.

To place orders, one can call 7305050541, 7305050542, 7305050543, 7305050544, 9025653376 and 24791133 or log in at www.cmdachennai.gov.in.

The Chennai Corporation has collected more than 500 samples from the residents in the containment areas in the past two days through collection kiosks. The civic body had set up the sample collection kiosks at 10 locations, that include community halls, indoor stadiums and others, and the kiosks started functioning on Saturday. “On the first day, we had collected around 250 samples. We are taking samples from random persons to prevent any community spreading in the localities where COVID-19 positive cases have been reported,” an official said. The samples collected from the kiosks will be sent to the labs for testing.

The civic body had plans to conduct rapid tests, but the delay in the arrival of consignment from China resulted otherwise.

Meanwhile, the civic body, as on Sunday, identified 3,036 persons with symptoms during the door-to-door survey and ruled out 2,261 cases. “Remaining 775 persons are under our follow-up. However, all the 3,036 are under our radar,” G Prakash, Chennai Corporation Commissioner said.

On Sunday, Rajendra Kumar, Principal Secretary and Abhash Kumar, ADGP of the zonal special team appointed for Chennai, held a meeting with the Chennai Corporation officials to review the COVID-19 prevention works being carried out in the city.