Naik expects that by the time April rolls around the corner around 500 outlets would be open to the public.
The Indian government has already been busy issuing licenses and the company with the largest application for retail outlet licenses has been Reliance Industries Ltd, which plans to open 5,849 retail outlets. Other companies expected to set up shop are Essar Oil Ltd (1,700 outlets), Royal Dutch Petroleum Co, Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Numaligarh Refinery.
Until now, the downstream market has been the purview of the state-run companies. As of this year alone, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Indian Oil Corp have a combined total of around 20,000 retail outlets in India.
