MUMBAI: Public sector oil companies have been transforming their fuddy-duddy petrol bunkers into shopping destinations and daily-needs outlets.
DLF Ltd is doing it the other way round — get petrol stations into their malls.
DLF Retail Developers Ltd, an arm of India’s largest real estate company, plans to put up gas stations and auto servicing centres at three of its mall developments.
The decision, according to Arvind Nair, managing director of DLF Retail, is to differentiate and provide a wholesome shopping experience to Indian households.
“We are currently in talks with public and private oil companies to set up these services in our malls. The facility will be there only in the large developments branded as Mall of India,” said Nair.
DLF Retail is currently developing 11 mall projects across 8 cities in the country. The total area under development is around 10 million square foot.
The three malls that will feature the aforesaid facility are located in Gurgaon, Noida and Bangalore. The total area under development across these 3 malls is about 7.5 million square foot.
When questioned about total investments being pumped into the 11 mall developments, Nair restricted his answer to ‘quite significant’.
On the timeframe for signing up the partner for gas stations and auto servicing centres he said that the management should be in a position to conclude it by December 2008.
“It need not necessarily be with just one company though,” said Nair.
