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Ratna Bhushan

The BPCL outlet on the Delhi-Mathura highway.

NEW DELHI, April 18

YOU'VE heard of cinema theatres, food courts, amusement parks and all-in-one entertainment complexes.

Now how does a petrol station doubling up as a retail and recreation plaza -- on a distant highway to boot -- sound?

Incredible? Ask Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), the country's second largest oil marketing company, which is rapidly turning its 9-acre petrol station on the bustling Delhi-Mathura highway into a thriving retail plaza.

For McDonald's, with its first highway outlet at the BPCL outlet, ice-cream major Baskin Robbins, and Swiss gifting company Diviniti, which came aboard six months back, the petrol station on the Delhi-Mathura highway is already a long-term business proposition.

There's more coming. As Mr M.S. Parmar, Territory Manager, BPCL, Mathura, informs, negotiations are on with PVR Cinemas for setting up a theatre, with the Best Western group for an Indian food plaza, and with the Tatas and Ashok Leyland for setting up an automobile service centre here.

Other existing incentives at this fuelling station include a kiosk which retails Nestle, Pepsi Foods and Kwality Walls products, a truckers dhaba with a separate driveway, a couple of sweet shops set up by regional strongholds and a children's park.

Apart from corporate tie-ups, BPCL will subsequently offer intermediary services like cyber cafes, a couple of rest rooms, and even emergency services through a tie-up with the Red Cross. "We have been approached by the Red Cross to permanently place an ambulance at the station,'' says Mr Raju Saraswat, Manager for the one-stop trucker service format of BPCL.

So, what's in it for BPCL? Apart from monthly rentals, corporates will be expected to cough up a percentage of sales to BPCL. "Since we have purchased the property, we are getting returns. Tie-ups such as these add value to our property and keep the profits coming,'' adds Mr Saraswat.

There's evidence that it's working. Mr Parmar is on record that only one-and-a-half years ago, this outlet was selling a monthly 120 kl of petrol. Today, the figure averages a monthly sale of 180 kl of petrol. In value terms, consolidated monthly profits for the outlet currently average Rs 8 lakh, and are likely to cross Rs 10 lakh this calendar year, projects Mr Saraswat.

Of the 9 acres of land, 5.5 acres has already been developed. BPCL intends to rent out each of the 18 shop spaces at this outlet within the current calendar year.

Of the 1,500 fuelling stations BPCL has in Northern India, about 35 per cent are now on highways. Apart from the Delhi-Mathura highway, BPCL's other major highway outlets up North include those on the Jaipur-Kota and Ambala-Jallandhar national highways.

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