Retail giants, railways in talks for leasing land

India's retail giants, including Kishore Biyani's Future Group, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail and Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti group, have started negotiations with the railways for leasing land for retail development.

The companies are also looking at an alliance by which they will use the railways' network for their supply chain by carrying their products to different warehouses across the country.

"We have had talks with Indian retail chains, which have shown interest in leasing our land to set up retail outlets. They also want to use our network for transporting their products across the country," a railway official told Business Standard.

Retail companies are also looking at tying up with the railways for setting up warehousing and a cold chain.

The railways expect to earn about 4 per cent of their projected revenues next year from retail-related activities.

With over 44,000 hectares of vacant land they want to commercially exploit, the railways set up the Rail Land Development Authority this year for this purpose.

They have been looking at various options of using the land, including setting up retail outlets, hotels, a cold storage network and warehouses.

They will soon formulate a clear policy framework for use of the land, especially in retail and warehousing, after discussions with the corporate houses.