With the view of ensuring that the residents of Chennai refrain their movements and avoid crowd gathering in the shopping markets to stock up the vegetables and groceries during the lockdown period, the Greater Chennai Corporation has, on Wednesday, launched mobile markets to sell the vegetables and groceries at the doorstep of the residents.

The initiative of the corporation has come after holding talks with the Tamil Nadu Traders Association on April 7th and these mobile markets would be operated across the city through 2,000 motor vehicles and 5,000 tricycles. By refraining the people from stepping out of the residences at this high time of fighting the spread of the virus, the mobile markets would also aim to relax the burden and inconvenience endured by the people in the wake of the lockdown.

The complete lockdown would be in place till April 14th and the government has been considering to extend the lockdown to curb the spread of the virus in the territory. According to the reports, the traders of these mobile markets would be issued with protective equipment like gloves, masks and they would also be issued with the identity cards, GCC (Greater Chennai Corporation) banners, and a vehicle pass as the authorization to travel across the city and reach every doorstep without being questioned by the police department and the corporation has also circulated contact numbers so that the interested traders can reach out to avail the passes.

The reports stated that the prices of the vegetables and groceries will be pasted on the vehicles letting the consumers know. After arriving in such a decision, the traders association has inducted the tricycles used for collecting old newspapers and other items to get converted into the mobile markets.

Inline to this initiative, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has installed the online delivery service for door delivering the vegetables and fruits and this service can be availed by the associations of the apartments and the group that has at least 20 families in its group and the Individual families have been requested to order vegetables and fruits through the online food delivery apps like Zomato, Dunzo, and Swiggy.

These announcements have come at a crucial time when Chennai has reported the most number of COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu. As of Thursday morning, the state has reported 738 cases of which 150 cases belong to Chennai with highest in Royapuram and Thiru Vika Nagar. 

You can reach out to the CMDA through the numbers given below,

9025653376, 044-24791133 

If you wish to make bulk booking online, visit - http://cmdatender.com/cmdammc/