Foodtech unicorns Swiggy and Zomato on Tuesday announced the start of their alcohol home delivery services in Odisha, less than a week after the launch of similar services in Jharkhand.
Starting with Bhubaneswar, Zomato said it will soon expand to other cities like Rourkela, Balasore, Balangir, Sambalpur, Berhampur and Cuttack.
Swiggy said its alcohol home delivery went live in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela on Tuesday after obtaining necessary approvals from the Odisha government, with other major cities in the state to follow during the week.
“We’re happy to be of service to our users in Odisha who can now use Zomato to get alcohol delivered in addition to grocery and food delivery,” Rakesh Ranjan, Vice President at Zomato, said in a statement.
“We are working very closely with excise departments to ensure end-to-end compliance to the safety guidelines and are also introducing consumption and identity verification protocols to promote responsible ordering and consumption,” Ranjan said.
The service named “Zomato Wine Shops” would be available on the home page of the Zomato app and will allow users to select any product from the listed retailers — just like grocery stores — and get it delivered right to their doorstep.
Users can avail of the service from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. as permitted by the state authorities, Zomato said, adding the app will only feature licensed retailers, who have applied for the service.
There would be age checks at the time of ordering as well as when the product is delivered, the company said.
Users will be required to upload a valid ID proof to be eligible for ordering which would later be verified by the delivery partner at the time of handing over the order.
There would also be product category limits to promote responsible ordering, it added.
A Swiggy spokesperson said the company has “leveraged technology to automate the customer verification process and solve an important challenge and support the government with enabling safe deliveries”.
Swiggy said it has partnered with HyperVerge to enable AI-face recognition for mandatory age verification and user authentication for alcohol deliveries.
The announcements came after Swiggy and Zomato last week said they had received permissions to start alcohol home delivery service in Jharkhand.
