New Delhi, June 1 (IANS): The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Monday launched a special micro-credit facility plan to provide affordable loans of up to Rs 10,000 to street vendors across the country.

Titled Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor's Atmanirbhar Nidhi scheme or PM Svanidhi, the scheme, according to the government, will support over 50 lakh street vendors, who had their businesses operational on or before March 24, 2020. The scheme is valid until March 2022 and will provide total liquidity of Rs 5,000 crore.

Lending under the scheme will commence in the month of July.

"The vendors can avail a working capital loan of upto Rs 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year, under PM SVANiDHI scheme. On timely/early repayment of the loan, interest subsidy at 7 per cent per annum will be credited to bank accounts of beneficiaries," said a tweet by the ministry.

The scheme was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 14 under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat economic package and the Union Cabinet approved the scheme on Monday.

Sidbi will be the ministry's technical partner for implementation of this scheme. They will manage the credit guarantee to the lending institutions through Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).

In order to ensure fast implementation of the scheme with transparency, accountability and consistency, a digital platform with web portal or mobile app is being developed to administer the scheme with end-to-end solution.

In another tweet, the ministry said that it is for the first time that micro finance institutions, non-banking finance companies and self help group banks have been allowed in a scheme for the urban poor due to their ground level presence and proximity to the urban poor including thestreet vendors.