Global home furnishing major Ikea is investing Rs 1,500 crore here as part of a blueprint that envisages 25 stores across India by 2025. Its first store is likely to come up within 18 months in Navi Mumbai, a state government official said.

"Ikea is starting to invest now. They have bought a big piece of land for Rs 400 crore in Navi Mumbai for their store," Apurva Chandra, Principal Secretary of the Maharashtra government’s Industries Department told PTI.

Ikea plans to build a 400,000 sq ft store on the land.

"They are investing almost Rs 1,500 crore here. This will be the first retail store in India," Chandra said. The company had previously announced it will open a store in Hyderabad in second half of 2017.

"Now they have taken the land, the first store will take another year or year and half," Chandra said.

Ikea expects the Mumbai store to get more than 5 million visitors a year. The company is also scouting for land to set up stores in Bengaluru, Delhi and the NCR region.

Currently, Ikea sources products worth 300 million euro for its global operations from India. (SH)