In a bid to end the dominance of food aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) is planning to develop a food delivery platform. The platform could have over 6 lakhs hotels and restaurants onboard.
The announcement was made by Anurag Katriar, president of NRAI in a ‘COVID-19 Townhall’ event on Wednesday. The platform is said to go live once the lockdown imposed across the country in wake of the coronavirus pandemic gets relaxed.
As reported by Live Mint, NRAI’s teams are currently exploring options to find delivery, technology, and logistics partners for getting started. “We have taken a critical first step of taking control of our business through digital initiatives and we have formed specific small teams,” said NRAI president Anurag Katriar in the event.
The association is planning to implement a contactless dining setup as well. As a matter of fact, NRAI is not the only entity interested in bringing contactless dining. Food delivery platform Zomato introduced its version of contactless dining last month.
“We are looking for our own solution for contactless dining rather than waiting for an aggregator to come in. Again, a small team is working on it on behalf of NRAI. Similarly, a team is working on home delivery solutions, it is 10-12% of our business today,” Katriar added.
NRAI’s initiative aims to mainly address concerns with regard to deep discounts offered by food aggregators. To recall, Zomato had to shut down its ‘Infinity Dining’ program that used to offer unlimited drinks and food in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru as part of Zomato Gold subscription.
