To help people to stay indoors, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Tuesday announced the ‘Homeline’ application which would now deliver groceries and vegetables to the doorstep of Bengaluru Urban residents.
Even as the lockdown continues to stay in force in the city of Bengaluru, the residents are often seen out to buy groceries and vegetables. Unlike in some districts, there hasn’t been a fixed time allotted by the government to buy daily needs. This has a potential risk of people contracting viruses from grocery shops or medical shops. The city has already reported over 100 cases. In order to curb this, the government has come up with the application ‘Homeline.’
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said,
“I believe that this (app) is an important step to keeping people safe.”
16000 stores mapped to the platform
The application is an addition to the long list of technological innovations of the state in tackling the coronavirus crisis that includes GPS tracking of home quarantined people, a telegram channel to address the frequently asked questions by the citizens and busting fake news on social media.
The application was initially introduced in the Bengaluru south region where the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) partnered with delivery partners like Dunzo, Rapido, Swiggy, HouseJoy, and Shadowfox. After the application is extended to the other parts of the Bengaluru Urban region, there are currently over 3000 delivery partners who will deliver at a fee of 10 rupees.
The Whatsapp Chatbot helpline that is manned 24×7 by call center employees is developed by Kaleyra. The platform is designed by Cartoon Mango-ITW Consulting that received complete support from the office of the Member of Parliament from Bengaluru South Constituency. Encouraging residents to make the best use of the application, BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar mentioned that the shopkeepers too can make use of the platform.
Kirana stores need to get on the platform while citizens can call on 08061914960 to speak to the person to place the order or can send the list via Whatsapp. The order will be delivered in a day. According to a statement from the Bengaluru South MP, Tejasvi Surya, the application has over 16000 groceries, medical, vegetable and fruit vendors to the platform. He also mentioned that the platform is designed in a way that the order is placed at the nearest store to the consumer.
Source: Livemint
