Travellers may now be able to buy onions, atta at major metro stations

Travellers of the Delhi metro may soon be able to buy kitchen essentials like flour, onion, and pulses at major metro stations, starting from Rajiv Chowk. The Centre will soon open retail stores for such staple food at major metro stations starting this month, The Economic Times (ET) reported on Wednesday, citing a senior government official.

The report added that the stores will be owned and operated by the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF). It aims to open stores at 15-20 metro stations with high footfall, offering food at subsidised prices.

If the plan is successful in Delhi, it may also be extended to other cities with metro networks like Chennai, Mumbai and Bengaluru, the report said.

With the move, NCCF is trying to reach out to a larger pool of customers and help them avail of the subsidies on these food items. Earlier, it sold tomatoes at subsidised rates in Delhi when the market price crossed Rs 200 per kilogram.

In September, NCCF partnered with e-commerce firm magicpin to sell groceries, including onions and pulses, at low prices through the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).

The partnership followed a collaboration of magicpin with NCCF for selling tomatoes at Rs 70 per kilogramme when their prices were above Rs 100 a kg in the market.

Currently, NCCF is selling onions at a subsidised rate of Rs 25 per kg in Delhi. Earlier this month, it was announced that the onions would soon be sold on subsidy in other states as well.

"In addition to Delhi-NCR, we have increased our coverage to all states from Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala," NCCF said in a statement.