Nehru Place, Asia's biggest hardware market. went online on Thursday the launch of nehruplaceithub.com, a neutral trading platform for hardware dealers. With 200 dealer already listed as members, this IT hub aims to connect nearly 700 dealers of Nehru Place as members would be connected to out side world through internet. This virtual IT hub shop is expected to generate a turnover of Rs. 2,500 crore.

Promoted by Softalk Lakhotia Infocom Ltd. (SLIL), this hub would be extending B2B as well as B2C facilities to the IT industry. currently the hub would serve as e-commerce platform out plans were afoot to make it e-commerce enabled for which the promoters were talking to various banks, director of SLIL Satyapriya Lakhotia said.

All the members of this distinct IT hub would be connected through their computers in a local area network (LAN) system forming an internet community. This hub would provide a unique trading platform for them to correspond with each other by means of computers and essentially creating a virtual network of Nehru Place dealers, Mr. Lakhotia added.

Members would be charged Rs. 3,500 as enrolment fee and subsequently they would have to pay Rs. 500 per month. In return members would be enjoying facilities like 24-hours a day free internet connection, e-mail, free classifieds, flash offers, new product launches site, online auction facilities etc. All the members in this hub will have a virtual shop of their own displaying their company name and profile along with their products and latest price updates. The virtual shop will have a feature of dual pricing, one for the retailers and the other for the dealers.