(11 September 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Reliance Communications has tied up with local commerce and social networking site Sulekha.com to offer local search on its Reliance Mobile World (R World) platform.

The tie-up will provide Reliance Mobile phone subscribers with the option of downloading city-specific details onto their mobile handsets and further share information with other users at the cost of Rs 3 per search.

This tie-up is essentially the mobile extension of the Yellow pages section of the popular website Sulekha.com. Currently, the search results are limited to eight cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad) and more locations will be added, states an official release.

Another similar application on the Reliance Mobile World is the 'City Guide', which offers viewers utility information such as listing of airlines, hotels, movies, hospitals on nearly 34 cities in India. These services are accessible and available in real-time.

Reliance Mobile customers currently have access to real estates, automobiles, local jobs, used items and matrimonial classifieds.

Reliance Communications applications, solutions and content group president Mahesh Prasad said, "It will not only save users' precious time and effort but also empower them to have city- specific information on their finger tips. The local residents, tourists, taxi drivers, students, cops, tour guides, business travellers and many other segments of our society can benefit from this service."

Sulekha.com founder and CEO Satya Prabhakar said, "The tie-up with Reliance Communications is an important milestone in Sulekha.com's innovative journey. We admire their customer centric vision and values, which are very close to our own philosophy."

In addition, Reliance has tied with M Khoj to offer local search on Reliance Mobile World. Initially, the service has been launched in Mumbai and will shortly be introduced in other cities.