Lucknow, March 11 The Rampur district administration has launched an initiative under which damaged and inactive ambulances have been refurbished to be used as "mobile shops" by poor street vendors, officials said on Wednesday.
Eight such "mobile shops" have been handed over for use at a vending zone developed near Photo Chungi in Rampur city, an official statement issued here on Wednesday said. The initiative is being implemented under the Prime Minister's SVANidhi scheme.
Rampur District Magistrate Ajay Kumar Dwivedi said, "Waste should be seen not as a problem, but as a resource. Inspired by this vision, the district administration has taken a significant step toward implementing a zero-waste model."
Eight ambulances had been lying unused for a long time at the district magistrate's office, so it was decided to give them a new purpose, Dwivedi said.
Under the waste management initiative, old and unusable government vehicles have been redesigned into attractive mobile shops and provided to street vendors, he said.
Street carts are often removed during anti-encroachment drives, so vendors using the refurbished "mobile shops" have been allotted spaces at the vending zone to run their businesses permanently, the statement said.
This step has not only stabilized their livelihoods but also helped improve the city's traffic management, it said.
Clothes, food items, children's toys, and other daily-use goods would be sold at the mobile shops, it added.