Reliance Industries Ltd will begin full-fledged petrol and diesel retailing by June this year after it sets up 300 petrol stations across the country.

"We have already commissioned three petrol stations at Jamnagar, Hazira and New Mumbai and plan to put in place another 300 by June end," a senior company official said in New Delhi.

Reliance has a license to set up 5,849 petrol stations to sell fuel it produces from its 33 million tonne Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat.

The official, who did not want to be named, said the company had selected about 600 sites across the country and will have about 2,000 petrol stations by 2005 end.

Reliance has stepped up its retail plans after the Supreme Court halted privatisation of the country's third largest refining and marketing company Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. Reliance was one of the six bidders eyeing HPCL's over 4,800 petrol stations.

Besides Reliance, companies like Essar Oil are pursuing retail chain to break the monopoly of state-owned oil firms who between them have over 19,000 petrol stations in the country.

Essar, which is constructing a 10.5 million tonne oil refinery close to Reliance Industries' Jamnagar refinery, has already put in place 11 petrol stations and plans to set up 50 outlets by March end.

Essar, which has a license to set up 1,700 petrol stations in the country, is selling around 300 kilolitres of fuel from its existing pumps, more than the best of current industry average of 204 kilolitres a month.