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In an attempt to bring more intercity logistics onto its network, the government’s ambitious Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is reportedly adding at least four cities this week.

Chennai, Thrissur and Kannur are among those four cities that will be added to the network, taking the total count of cities under ONDC to ten from six said T Koshy, CEO, ONDC, speaking to the Economic Times.

ONDC had already sketched plans to expand to 100 cities by August this year and add over 80 merchants and digital platforms to the network. Koshy had also stated earlier this month that ONDC would be opened for public use in 75-100 towns by August.

Reiterating it further Koshy told the publication, “We are trying to organically build up. We are attempting 75-100. We are putting that kind of pressure on our team. We will see a hockey stick graph rise in one year’s time.”

ONDC’s chief business officer Shireesh Joshi also said that the platform is bullish about such a progress adding that with intercity logistics available and seller applications going live in multiple locations, automatically, it can go live, “literally with a flick of a switch”. 

“From a buyer’s standpoint, even if there’s only one seller (for a certain product) in the country but buyers in 200 cities, if there are intercity logistics, people from those 200 cities can buy. We may even surpass the 100-cities mark,” said Joshi.

The ONDC pilot project was launched in April this year in the cities including New Delhi, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Bhopal and Shillong. It went live in Lucknow in June. Moreover, following the launch, 24 startups including Dunzo, Meesho subsidiaries of Flipkart were onboarded on the platform and they are still in different stages of integration.

As per the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s statement last month, seven companies have already adopted the ONDC protocols. 

Talking about the expansion of ONDC further, Joshi added, “Our initial start was measured and cautious because we were doing it for the first time but the scaling up is relatively easy.”

For the uninitiated, the initiative of establishing ONDC was led by the commerce ministry in December last year. Koshy, a former partner at consulting firm EY in collaboration with a nine-member advisory council, had led the concept.

ONDC is aimed at democratising digital commerce through an open network. It plans to enable the smaller merchants and retailers to compete with the ecommerce giants such as Flipkart and Amazon.

Talking about the ONDC project, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also said recently, “The huge success of UPI has democratised India’s payment system. Similarly, in the next five years, we will have ONDC democratise the e-commerce sector of the country.”

Meanwhile, as per an Inc42 report, the total addressable market opportunity for the country’s ecommerce segment is expected to reach $200 Bn by 2026.