New Delhi, Nov 18 (IANS): As demand grows for takeaway food in the social distancing times amid surge in Covid cases, Zomato on Wednesday said its takeaway service is now available to restaurants at zero commission.

The food delivery platform said that for restaurants to be able to tap into this growing demand, it is making takeaway service available for free to its restaurant partners.

"We will not be charging any commission, and will also forego the payment gateway charges we incur on all takeaway orders," Zomato said in a statement.

"Takeaway on our app has witnessed tremendous growth with the order volume increasing by more than 200 per cent in the last few months," it added.

According to Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal, more than 55,000 restaurants are already live for takeaway and "we are serving tens of thousands of such orders weekly"

"To help the restaurant sector, we will also forego the payment gateway charges incurred on all such orders," he said in a tweet.

Zomato said it is at 110 per cent of pre-Covid gross merchandise value (GMV) run rate in the food delivery business.

"We have delivered over 13 crore orders since the first lockdown started in March, and there have been zero reported cases of covid transmission through food or its packaging," the company claimed.

There are still millions of customers who haven't yet ordered since the beginning of the lockdown.

For restaurants that already serve delivery orders, takeaway provides another avenue to access more customers, and further grow their business

"Customers can search for all restaurants offering takeaway using relevant filters on our home page. We continue to work with our restaurant partners so that they follow all safety measures and encourage our customers to wear masks and practice social distancing when they pick up their orders," Zomato said.