By the beginning of the next financial year, consumers in India would have over 10 companies to choose from while buying petrol and diesel. The new entrants in this segment include private players like Reliance, Essar and Shell, and three psus, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd (mrpl), ongc and Numaligarh Refinery. The Government had granted permission to let these companies set up retail outlets on the condition that they invest Rs2,000 crore in building infrastructure in the hydrocarbon sector. All the new entrants (except Shell) qualify under this criterion. The Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Ram Naik had earlier this year approved a proposal to grant authorisation to mrpl (a subsidiary of ongc) to market transportation fuels under its own name and logo. "mrpl operates a 9.69 million tonnes refinery at Mangalore in Karnataka and will fulfil the investment requirement of Rs2,000 crore in the building of infrastructure in the hydrocarbon sector," said an official from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. Accordingly mrpl would set up 500 retail outlets initially, including 11 per cent in low service/remote areas as required by the stipulations granting marketing rights. "mrpl thus becomes the sixth new entity which has been granted authorisation to market transportation fuels in the country in order to increase competition for better quality of products and services to the customers, and to widen the marketing infrastructure for petrol and diesel. This decision goes a long way towards fulfilling the government's objective of bringing in more players in marketing petrol and diesel to offer consumers with a wider choice," says Naik. Initially mrpl proposes to set up retail outlets in 10 states including Kamataka (110), Kerala (22), Tamil Nadu (56), Andhra Pradesh (56), Goa (12), Maharashtra (110), Gujarat (56), Madhya Pradesh (22), Rajasthan (28) and Haryana (28). With this, the authorisation for setting up retail outlets to market transportation fuel increases to 11,659, which is about 56 per cent of the existing 20,885 retail outlets in the country. As per the government permission, marketing rights have been given to Reliance Industries (5,84! >), Shell India Pvt Ltd (2,000), Essar Oil (1,700), ongc (1,100) and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (510). This would increase the number of players in the marketing of transportation fuels in the country to 10 from the present four public sector entities namely ioc, bpcl, hpcl and ibp. In line with the Government approval, Essar Oil (eol) has indicated that it would set up approximately 12 per cent of 300 retail outlets in the state of Gujarat in the backward and low service areas. As per the plan, eol proposes to set up 300 outlets in Gujarat by 2005. "These outlets are in various stages of commissioning and will provide employment to at least 30,000 families. Essar plans to set-up outlets in backward areas, rural areas and places where no outlets exist," says an Essar spokesperson, adding that during the course of this month 30 retail outlets will become operational in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab. "We will focus on the quality of products sold. Diesel is as per international specifications and has a much higher cetane number than the local standards. This helps the truckers get better mileage. Further, fuel is clean and has no gummy residues which helps in reducing maintenance cost and keeping the engine clean," the Essar spokesperson added. Essar Oil is implementing a 12 mmtpa refinery at Jamnagar. On completion, it is expected to produce 55 lakh tonnes of diesel and 22 lakh tonnes of petrol annually besides other petroleum products like lpg, kerosene and Naptha. Meanwhile, Reliance Industries Ltd (ril) has sought Gujarat government's intervention for setting up its chain of retail outlets in the state, saying the process for obtaining permissions is causing an inordinate delay. ril has planned a Rs300-crore investment for setting up 300 outlets along the national and state highways, and important roads in between various cities, within a year. Anil Ambani, vice-chairman and managing director, ril, had stated at a press conference recently that the company would set up 600 outlets across the country within a year. In view of the lack of co-ordination of various departments like revenue, police and home, and delay in obtaining permissions from the various departments involved, the company has requested appointment of a nodal agency for a single window clearance. "Since the project is being implemented on a fast-track basis, it has already mobilised its various resources. The Gujarat Government has been informed about the delay and difficulty in obtaining various approvals for setting up the outlets due to lack of uniform policy and guidelines followed by the district administration," said a spokesperson from ril. ril, in a letter to the revenue and food and civil supplies department, said, "To complete the project of 300 retail outlets to be set up within a short period of one year, the procedure and guidelines for taking permission for each location from various districts should be uniform, simple and clear-cut." These outlets will be set up as service centres and will include associated facilities like restaurant/dhaba, convenient stores, service stations, information kiosks, which will present a new benchmark for various services provided to the consumers and tourists. ril added that while this would enhance competitiveness in the market and bring economic benefits to the users, it would also provide employment to the unskilled and semi-skilled manpower in the vicinity and give economic thrust in the region. Meanwhile, Shell India will set up its first petrol pump before the end of this fiscal year. The preparations for the same are underway. Shell India chairman Vikram S. Mehta said the company had no plans to back-up entry into the retail petroleum sector by setting up a refinery as India already had a surplus refining capacity. "We also do no wish to import petroleum products and plan to link up with existing refiners," he said. Shell has tied up with mrpl -which also has plans of setting up 500 petrol stations - and will share storage and handle infrastructure with Shell.