It will also employ mass media to create awareness about the initiative through which it offers subsidised kitchen essentials such as onion, pulses and atta directly to consumers.
“We are looking at opening 50 stores across Delhi,” the official said. The government is looking for someone to manage and operate the everyday operations of these stores, he added.
Last month the government opened its first two stores at Delhi’s Rajiv Chowk metro station, to tap into the high footfall it receives. These are owned by the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF), which procures agricultural commodities like food grains, pulses, spices, oil seeds, onions and other consumer goods on behalf of the government and sells to consumers at reasonable rates.
ET reported in December that depending on the success of the project in Delhi, the government could open such stores in cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru which also have metro rail networks.
There are plans to advertise the stores through radio and announcements at metro stations to increase consumer awareness and give away prizes to every hundredth purchase made through the digital mode, the official said.With these stores, the government intends to reach out to a larger number of consumers and help them avail of the subsidies it is giving out as a part of its price intervention scheme to cool food inflation.
