Retail in Asia

In Shops

Shopping at Metro stations still new for Indians

In 2006, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, or DMRC, started its retail operations and stations like Inderlok, Kashmere Gate, Rajiv Chowk were targeted as retail hubs. Inderlok station has a McDonald’s, Big Bazaar, Comesum restaurant and wine and beer shop. At the Big Bazaar outlet, there are very few customers, while the McDonald’s looks quite full. At the Akshardham station, which has a Parsvnath mall, hardly any mall space has been rented out. A "Coming Soon" poster of Haldiram’s outlet has faded away. The outlet has been "coming soon" since 2010.

The idea behind retail at metro stations was to look at revenue streams beyond the passenger fares. While Delhi Metro continues to add a record number of commuters every year, the same can’t be said about the retail business. According to its published annual report, the non-fare revenues for DMRC in the year 2011-12 were around INR200 crore (INR2 billion, USD34.1 million). Of this, INR40 crore came from retail while the rest came from ATMs and advertising.

SD Sharma, DMRC’s director of business development, says that the culture of shopping at Metro stations is still new. "The demand for retail isn’t much," he adds. Delhi Metro has built some big stations like the HUDA City Centre station in Gurgaon. Shops have been leased out only on the ground floor, the other floors are unoccupied.