Delhi G20 summit: Up to 25,000 food, grocery delivery workers to be impacted

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With parts of Delhi coming to a standstill between September 8 and 10 due to restrictions imposed due to the G20 summit, those in the food and grocery delivery businesses told Moneycontrol that up to 25,000 delivery workers’ livelihoods could be impacted on these days.

Essential activities like postal and medical services will be allowed across the national capital, but commercial activities like e-commerce deliveries (except medicines) will be prohibited, SS Yadav, Special CP (Traffic), Delhi Police had said on September 4.

The announcement meant that during the three days when US President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several other dignitaries visit India, restaurants in areas like Connaught Place (CP), Secretariat, Ashoka Road, Janpath etc. will be shut for dining in and will also not accept online orders.

Kabir Suri, President of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) told Moneycontrol that there are at least 80-100 eateries in the New Delhi controlled zone and each restaurant will lose about Rs 7-8 lakh worth of sales in those three days. Suri said the NRAI has written multiple letters to the government but is yet to receive replies.

Naturally, as restaurants are prohibited from functioning, food delivery partners tagged to the zone will have no work on those days.

“These riders earn on a per-order basis. They will lose income for three days straight with two of those days being the weekend, when riders work harder to hit incentive eligibility levels,” an executive at a food delivery startup told Moneycontrol.

Another executive estimated that there are about 35,000 food delivery riders in Delhi and about 15,000-17,500 of those will be affected by the restrictions. Along with those, about 12,000 grocery delivery partners are likely to lose their regular stream of income during the three days, the executive added.

E-commerce deliveries

As offices in CP and Janpath will remain shut between September 8 and 10, e-commerce companies are hoping office-goers stay back and shop from home.

“The CBD (central business districts) regions, that are asked to shut down for those three days, mostly have shops around them. We’re hoping that when people stay back at home, they end up shopping with us,” an executive at an e-commerce firm told Moneycontrol.

“We aren’t expecting any drop in order volumes or aren’t forecasting shipments to be delayed because our hubs are towards Gurugram and Faruk Nagar and there are absolutely no restrictions on trucks moving in those areas,” the executive added.