Reliance Retail in NCR from Monday

The Reliance Retail juggernaut will enter the national capital region (NCR) on Monday to give the masses a taste of western-style convenience stores, with an estimated investment of Rs 8,000 crore.

Its entry comes ahead of Bharti-Wal Mart, which will announce their roadmap in February. Reliance Retail, which entered organised retail last year through food retailing outlets, will be opening nine "Reliance Fresh" stores across Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Noida.

Reliance Retail had lined up Rs 25,000 crore for investments over the next five years for its retail business, of which it intended to spend Rs 8,000 crore in the national capital region, sources said.

A Reliance spokesperson, however, declined to comment on the details of their plans for NCR. According to sources, the company will open 400 to 600 stores in the region, covering 50 million square feet of retail space.

Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, earlier this month spent close to Rs 1,500 crore for acquiring about a dozen and a half commercial properties in Delhi.

According to sources, it acquired a property at Vikaspuri in West Delhi valued at around Rs 280 crore, besides seven other properties valued at around Rs 700 crore. Of these, six were at Dwarka near the Indira Gandhi International Airport and one at Rohini in West Delhi.

"The overall size of the acquisition in terms of space is over 500,000 square feet," the sources said, adding that the company will be taking part in another bid for two properties at Vasant Kunj in South Delhi. The properties acquired by Reliance Retail were part of auctions by the Delhi Development Authority. When contacted, company officials declined to comment.

However, Reliance Retail officials have in the past said they aimed to have a total of 200 million square feet of retail space including the yet-to-be launched supermarkets, hypermarkets and speciality stores. The larger format stores are due for launch by the end of February.

For retail giant Wal-Mart, the tie-up with Bharti Enterprises has thrown open one of the world's most attractive retail markets with a population of over 1 billion.

The country's increasingly wealthy middle-class alone is estimated at over 300 million, which equals that of the entire population of the US.