Moradabad Bareilly Expressway gets a new revamped Grameen Haat, #Adda

Mrida, a social business venture focused on underserved rural communities, and Moradabad Bareilly Expressway Ltd. today re-launched the Highway Touchpoint, or Grameen Haat, that was in operation at the entrance of Village TahTajpur, Dist. Bareilly since November 2015. The original Grameen Haat focused on only the highway travellers and did not have elements of sustainability over a long term built in. The re-launch as an #Adda for students and residents of nearby towns and cities is an initiative to improve the impact and the sustainability of the project.

Grameen Haat was originally set up as part of an integrated CSR initiative by IL&FS in association with Mrida, to holistically develop villages along the Expressway. A place to rest and replenish for highway travellers, it served their basic needs such as drinking water, first aid kit, refreshments, and clean toilets, even while showcasing the holistic development initiatives being implemented in the area by IL&FS and Mrida. It also facilitated aggregation and sale of vegetable produce from surrounding areas, to institutional customers such as Invertis University, located just 3 Kms away.

Alongwith the core activities of the Grameen Haat, an ‘Adda’ or meeting point was introduced, with its own unique mascot - “MUCHHAD”. The Adda, apart from becoming a happening place for students to congregate, will also progressively showcase a range of food and beverages. Besides getting together and exchanging notes and ideas, the objective of Grameen Haat #Adda is to involve more and more students in rural development activities and catalyze the upliftment of these villages.

“With this initiative, villagers do not have to travel to nearby towns to sell goods such as hand ground spices, washing powder, jams and pickles, vermi-compost, fresh vegetables, and so on - they get to retail them at the Grameen Haat. Highway commuters, local residents and students can stop by for refreshment, clean toilets and shopping, while students also have an opportunity to become an inegtral part of rural development initiatives: A true win-win situation for all concerned”, says Mr. Arun Nagpal, Co-Founder and MD, Mrida Group.

According to Mr. Vaibhav Sharma, Project Head, Moradabad Bareilly Expressway Ltd., “Through this relaunch, we are giving a young and fun look to the Grameen Haat, to improve footfalls and make it more appealing to residents of Bareilly and to students of the nearby colleges and Universities such as Invertis”.

“Mrida and IL&FS are in talks with senior officials at Invertis to formalize an association which will make this happen in an institutionalized manner. We also propose to engage the students and local residents in Road Safety Campaigns to spread awareness and promote safety measures on highways”, adds Mr. Sharma.

Customers visiting Grameen Haat #Adda can now access:
• Terracotta crafts by artisans of Nawabganj village,
• Spice powders made by a women’s self-help group of Kishanpur village
• Attractive Handicraft items and dresses made by a stitching centre set up by womenfolk who have equipped and upskilled themselves and turned entrepreneurs
• Products manufactured by the women’s self-help group supported by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bareilly

About Mrida:

A Social Business Venture incorporated in February 2014, Mrida (Sanskrit for Soil) seeks to build sustainable and scalable, financially viable business models aimed at holistic rural development. Mrida has chosen to work only with underserved rural communities, which have by and large been forgotten and neglected even as the rest of the country progresses. The focus is on sustainable development, as opposed to grants or charity.

The group comprises business entities working on financially viable business models revolving around energy access, agricultural interventions, and processing of plants and herbs – businesses that are designed to create win-win situations across the spectrum of their association.

Since commencing business operations in February 2014, Mrida has worked on a variety of initiatives with individuals, village level entrepreneurs, self-help-groups, rural communities, and Corporates. With about 50 interventions on-the-ground, including many in remote, difficult to access areas and benefiting hitherto underserved communities, Mrida provides energy access, and facilitates education, livelihoods, better agricultural yields, and women’s empowerment. These interventions have shown for the large part, how mentoring, entrepreneurship and education can make a tangible, holistic difference. They have so far, already made a significant dent in, and impacted/influenced thousands of lives in villages and hamlets spread across the States of MP, UP, J&K, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

Mrida has partnered with leading business houses in India like Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS), Hero Motors Group (AG Industries and Rockman Industries), Mahindra & Mahindra and The Reliance Foundation, for integrated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, and is currently also engaged in active discussions with others in this regard.

B-18, 2nd Floor
Shivalik
New Delhi – 110 017
Phone: +91 11 266 91116
+91 11 41734447
Email: info@mridagroup.com
Website: www.mridagroup.com

This release was published on openPR.