Ranchi: Swiggy, India’s leading food delivery service has started its home delivery service of alcohol in Jharkhand’s select cities, starting with Ranchi. According to the company’s statements, the service will also be provided in other various states. Discussions with the respective state governments regarding the same are in their final stages.
Wednesday saw the reopening on liquor shops in Jharkhand where people were forming endless queues in a spite to buy alcohol. These stores had opened for the first time after the national lockdown of 52 days. Despite the extra 25% value added tax levied on liquor by the state government, people didn’t seem to be affected by it. Alcohol sales in other states have generated a good amount of revenue for the governments.
Fearing the rise of coronavirus infections if these queues are to continue and as a chance to revive from the losses due to lockdown, Swiggy has started its alcohol home delivery service. All you need to do is add to cart your preferred liquor bottle from the ‘Wine Shops’ category present in the updated version of the Swiggy app. As for now, this service is only available in Ranchi but will soon go live in all major cities of the state, approximately in a week.
The food delivery company said it has obtained the obligatory approvals from the Jharkhand government for the service.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, Swiggy has relentlessly worked to solve customer pain points and support local governments in every way possible,” Anuj Rathi, Swiggy’s Vice President for Products said in a statement.
“By enabling home delivery of alcohol in a safe and responsible manner, we can generate additional business for retail outlets while solving the problem of overcrowding, thereby promoting social distancing.”
To ensure safe delivery of alcohol and in accordance with the applicable laws, Swiggy has introduced measures such as compulsory age verification and user authentication to complete deliveries.
Customers can complete their instant age verification by uploading a picture of their valid government ID card, followed with a selfie which the platform will be using for verification using an Artificial Intelligence-powered system, Swiggy said.
All orders will require a unique one-time-password (OTP) which needs to be provided by the customer at the time of delivery. The customer will receive the OTP after he places the order in his app.
There is also a restriction on the order quantity to ensure a customer does not place orders for alcohol above the prescribed limit as per the state law.
Swiggy said it is partnering with authorized sellers following validation of their license and other required documents as outlined by the respective state governments.
