Bengaluru, Feb 12 (IANS): In a bid to challenge the dominance of online fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) delivery platforms like Grofers and Big Basket, food delivery app Swiggy on Tuesday launched "Stores" - a platform to allow users to order groceries, medicines and other daily amenities.

"Swiggy 'Stores' extends the option of ordering food from nearby restaurants to ordering anything from any store across your city," Sriharsha Majety, Co-Founder and CEO of Swiggy wrote in a blog-post.

With "Stores", Swiggy aims to connect people to every store, retailer or brand - both online and offline - and deliver goods to people's doorsteps.

"We're taking our first step by launching across Gurugram and will deliver from over 3,500 stores across the city. We've already partnered with over 200 stores in categories such as fruits and vegetables to florists and pet care stores," Majety added.

"Stores" platform has been made available within the main Swiggy app itself.

"We are launching 'Stores' in beta for now, while we fine-tune the service to make sure it meets the high standards that we at Swiggy hold ourselves to," Majety noted.

Swiggy's new platform comes amidst controversies ignited by hundreds of restaurant owners sending a petition to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) alleging wrongdoings by food delivery companies.

The petition, first reported in January, accused Swiggy, Zomato, Uber Eats and Foodpanda of misusing their dominant positions by engaging in practices such as deep discounting, in-house kitchens and internal sourcing.