Shop, hop on to a metro train soon

Shop, hop on to a metro train soon

12-Storey Mall At Ekkattuthangal To Be Ready By Mid-2022

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  05.01.2021

In less than two years, city residents can shop in a new mall and saunter across the corridor to hop onto a metro train, as CMRL has awarded a contract for constructing a 12-storey complex adjacent to Ekkattuthangal metro station. The mini-shopping mall, likely to be ready in 18 months, is one of the first properties to be developed outside metro stations through which CMRL is expected to generate non-ticketing revenue, by renting out retail and office spaces. CMRL is developing nearly 12lakh sqft multimodal hubs with commercial space in three prime locations in the city including the Central Square and Kathipara.

Officials said the commercial complex will be built on a 41,861sqft land at a cost of ₹₹73 crore, construction contract for which was awarded recently to a city-based firm. According to tender, which was floated last year, the building will have 11floors with a ground floor and two basement levels. Visitors to the building could have easy access to the metro station either through a pathway.

“The lowers levels will be for retail and the upper levels will be for office space,” an official said earlier. An official said the basement levels will be for parking for both passengers and those visiting the building.

CMRL also plans to build similar structures near stations such as Nehru Park. Construction for the urban square under Kathipara flyover, multilevel parking and pedestrian subways as part of Central Square project and underground amenities centre below Thiru Vi Ka Park at Shenoy Nagar is underway. The properties developed in these locations are expected to provide people with shopping experience, office space and a seamless switch from one mode of transport to another.

These developments, however, come at a time when large retail spaces in metro stations remain unoccupied likely due to low footfalls in the stations. Except for a few stalls in the street level of stations like Nehru Park and Koyambedu, many of them built inside bigger stations more than three years back are lying vacant. Due to no takers, CMRL made an attempt to study market interest in 2019 and it had planned to build in Ekattuthangal and Nehru Park.