R. Kumar Opticians Now at 8 | Science City and Nikol Store Joins the Family

Ahmedabad just got two more reasons to see better, and look better doing it.

R. Kumar Opticians, the family-run eyewear house that has been fitting Ahmedabad since 1960, has expanded to eight showrooms across the city. The newest additions, at Science City Road in Thaltej and at Nikol, bring the R. Kumar experience to two fast-growing corridors that, until now, had to drive across town for it.

What Makes Science City Store Different

The Science City showroom sits at Shop No. 4, Fortune Business Hub, on Science City Road near the Shell petrol pump in Thaltej. From the outside, it looks like what you'd expect from an R. Kumar store: clean, well-lit, boutique-style. Step inside, though, and there's a working clinical setup that most optical shops in the city simply don't have.

The store includes a clinical setup where customers can get a full eye examination on site from qualified optometrists. But the more unusual feature is the remote refraction system: the clinic's refraction instruments can be operated by an optometrist sitting at another R. Kumar location, or anywhere else with a network connection, while conducting a live video consultation with the patient at Science City.

In practical terms, this means a specialist posted in, say, Delhi or at the Ashram Road branch can control the diagnostic equipment at Science City in real time and carry out a proper vision test remotely. The patient sits at the instrument in the store, and the optometrist adjusts settings, takes readings, and discusses correction options over a parallel video link. It is the kind of setup that most people associate with hospital-grade telemedicine, not a retail eyewear showroom.

The eyewear, as expected, is serious

R. Kumar built its name on curation, not volume. That philosophy carries over fully to Science City. The showroom stocks what the brand considers the most design-forward pieces from international designers and luxury labels. If you've visited any of our other stores, you know the drill: these are not generic racks of lookalike frames. 

The selection is deliberate, trending and pulled from labels that R. Kumar has direct authorized relationships with, including names like Ray-Ban, Cartier, Gucci, Prada, Tom Ford, Oakley, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Maybach, Miu Miu, and Mont Blanc, among others.

The sunglasses collection at Science City is worth a separate mention. It is one of our largest fashion-forward sunglasses collections at any single location. For a city that gets as much sun as Ahmedabad, that's practical as much as it is stylish.

Prescription Lenses and Functional Vision Correction

Beyond frames, the Science City store carries the full R. Kumar prescription lens portfolio. That means lenses from Crizal, Essilor, Varilux, Zeiss, Nikon, Nova and Transitions, all available for fitting and dispensing on-site.

But here is where it gets more interesting for people with specific visual demands. Our store stocks functional lens categories that address modern lifestyle problems directly:

• Anti-fatigue lenses for younger professionals and students who spend long hours on screens. These are not the same as standard single-vision lenses. They have a slight power variation built in that reduces strain during prolonged near-distance work.

• Myopia control lenses for children who have been diagnosed with myopia (minus power). These specialty lenses are designed to slow the progression of myopia over time, which is a growing concern among parents and pediatric eye care professionals alike.

• Home and office lenses for people whose work demands extended near and mid-distance vision, think architects at a drafting table, accountants toggling between a monitor and printed documents, or anyone who needs clear vision from roughly arm's length to across a room without the full range of a progressive lens.

Smart Eyewear and Contact Lenses

The Science City store also carries Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and the Oakley HSTN smart AI eyewear. These are the wearables that let you take photos, make calls, listen to music and interact with Meta's AI assistant without reaching for your phone. R. Kumar has been an authorized retailer for these since their India launch and can fit them with prescription lenses as well.

On the contact lens side, the store runs a fully equipped contact lens clinic. This goes well beyond the basic soft lens fitting. Science City stocks:

• Toric soft contact lenses for astigmatism

• Multifocal soft contact lenses for presbyopia.

• Coloured cosmetic lenses for people who want to change their eye colour, with or without vision correction. 

The lens brands on shelf include Bausch & Lomb, Johnson & Johnson, Alcon, and CooperVision.

Nikol: Bringing R. Kumar to East Ahmedabad

The Nikol store, located at GF Shop #02, Hilltown Impressa, Anmol Circle, is the brand's first entry into Ahmedabad's eastern growth belt. For residents of Nikol, Naroda, and the surrounding areas, this means access to the R. Kumar standard of eyewear and eye care without having to trek to western Ahmedabad.

Eight stores, one city

With Science City and Nikol, R. Kumar now operates eight showrooms across Ahmedabad:

1. Ashram Road, Swastik Super Market, Navrangpura

2. Bopal, Aarohi Verve, Sardar Patel Ring Road

3. C.G. Road

4. Sabarmati-Gandhinagar, Sangath Mall 1, Motera

5. Satellite, Shangrila Arcade, 100 Feet Anand Nagar Road

6. Vastrapur, Sigma-2, Sunrise Park Road

7. Science City, Fortune Business Hub, Thaltej

8. Nikol, Hilltown Impressa, Anmol Circle

From the partners

Amman Anup Kumar, Partner, R. Kumar Opticians:

"Science City and Nikol are not just new pins on a map for us. Science City, especially, represents where we think optical retail needs to go: a beautifully designed showroom, world-class eye examinations and the choice of the finest eyewear available anywhere in the world. That's what we've built here.”

Bhavik Gopal Kumar, Partner, R. Kumar Opticians:

"Our family has been in this business for over seven decades. What I've learned from our senior partners is that the real job of an optician is not to sell glasses. It's to solve vision problems. That's why we invested in remote refraction capability at Science City. It's why we stock myopia control lenses and multifocal contact lenses alongside designer sunglasses. Eight stores now, and every one of them runs on that principle."

Rohan Gopal Kumar, Partner, R. Kumar Opticians:

"When my grandfather started this business in 1960, eyewear retail in India was mostly about selling a pair of glasses off a shelf. Three generations later, we are running clinical-grade refraction remotely, fitting multifocal contact lenses and dispensing smart glasses with built-in AI. But the one thing that has not changed is this: people trust us because we make the effort to understand what their eyes need before we recommend anything. Eight stores is a milestone, but only because each one carries that same standard/ethos.”