NID to design retail outlets

The much-awaited retail petroleum outlets of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, which are expected to be launched by end of this fiscal year, will be designed by the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design (NID).

To be launched under the brand name OVAL (ONGC Values), the entire retailing chain design, from the logo to the structure, will be designed by the institute.

Top officials of ONGC, including chairman and managing director Subir Raha, met NID officials on Sunday afternoon to finalise the finer aspects of the deal.

Sources said the overriding feature of the entire deal is to bring out ONGC's social responsibility as India's biggest company. The OVAL logo, along with other designing aspects, are likely to be unveiled in the next few days.

"Few months from now, we will launch our outlets. The entire retail branding has been assigned to NID. In fact, NID has been working on the design for the past one year," Raha told Business Standard on Sunday.

Sources in NID stated that most of the designing part is complete and different designs have been finalised for urban, rural and highway outlets.

"We are not looking at these outlets as just those for vending petrol and diesel. The concept is to ensure that the outlets are threaded in social responsibility," said an NID official.

NID sources were, however, tight-lipped about the actual design and the colour schemes. But the retail outlets in cities are likely to have ATMs, medicine stores and other facilities.

ONGC has already completed its pilot project for retailing petrol and diesel. The corporation aims at creating a brand equity for petrol and diesel with OVAL and has assured that the brand will be marketed very differently compared with other players.

The company has already finalised a majority of the sites to open the outlets. ONGC, which was earlier authorised for setting up 600 outlets across the country, got approval for an additional 500 outlets, post buyout of Aditya Birla group's stake in MRPL.