Shell returns to India

After 28 years, Shell, part of the oil major Royal Dutch Shell entered the oil retailing space. It's Indian arm Shell-India opened its first outlet in Bangalore on Tuesday.

At the launch, Vikram Singh Mehta, chairman of Shell Group of Companies-India, said that Shell India will invest Rs 250 crore in the first phase to open outlets in South India. While, he did not give the number of outlets planned in the first phase, he said that the national rollout will happen only in the second phase.

However, the expansion will depend on the success of the first phase. Shell India has licence to open 2,000 outlets in India. The licence specifies that 5.5 per cent of the outlets should be in remote areas.

He said that Shell has invested around Rs 4,000 crore in its nine Indian subsidiaries till now. Shell IT, the technology arm will now source some process from its Indian subsidiary.