MUMBAI (Metro Rail News): The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited has set to lease 1.5 lakh sq.ft of space across Metro 3 stations as part of its initiatives to generate non-fare revenue. The corporation recently revealed interest in the effort and hopes to make around Rs 20 to Rs 25 crores/annum from the same, once the line is operational.
The retail spaces for the initiative have been divided into two sections — large format retail and kiosk-based retail. Where almost all stations will have space carved out for the latter, MMRCL has large contiguous areas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 sq.ft. at four stations i.e. Cuffe Parade, Siddhivinayak, Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and Terminal 2.
Around 1.17 lakh sq.ft. is covered under large format retail, with the largest continuous area at Siddhivinayak and Terminal 2, 31,000 sq.ft. of the area each at the mezzanine level in the former and the concourse in the latter. Cuffe Parade has the most space, almost 37,000 sq.ft., shared between 24,000 sq.ft. in the mezzanine level and 13,000 sq.ft. at the concourse, that can be leased.
“The space available can be accessed by both passengers and non-passengers alike. So we are looking at food courts, supermarkets, salons, bank branches and pharmacies that can be set-up in the area,” an MMRCL spokesperson said.
Under the kiosk-based retail segment, confined space has been carved in the non-ticketing area of other stations. The areas would usually range among 300 to 1,000 sq.ft. and will primarily cater to the passengers’ requirements. The space mix being explored includes food stalls and kiosks, travel retail stores like the 7-Eleven formats, ATMs and vending machines, among others.
Shadab Siddiqui of Auctus Advisors, who is providing consultancy to MMRCL for these proposals, said recently there was no format of ‘transit retail’ in the larger retail space.
He further said that transit retail has grab and go product assortment for people with low dwell time. This covers ready-to-eat packed meals, packed sandwiches, newspaper and magazines, coffee vending machines and more. These are low-involvement products with high trading velocities.
