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Somasroy Chakraborty

Total space requirement estimated at 65 million sq ft

MR GIBSON G. VEDAMANI

Kolkata May 9 Riding on the back of the retail boom, nearly 285 malls are expected to come up in India over the next three years taking the total number of malls to close to 400.

"Currently, there are 114 operational malls spread over 35-36 million sq. ft. According to our estimate, another 280-285 malls will be developed across the country by 2010," said Mr Gibson G Vedamani, Chief Executive Officer, Retailers Association of India (RAI).

According to him, nearly 45 per cent of the proposed malls would come up in the northern part of the country and the total space requirement is estimated at 65 million sq. ft.

While details on investment are yet to be estimated, according to industry experts, the construction cost only would be about Rs 14,300-16,250 crore.

"Construction cost for a standard mall, on an average, is about Rs 2,200-Rs 2,500 per sq. ft. ," said Mr Ankur Srivastava, Managing Director, DTZ India, a global property advisory firm.

The Inorbit Mall promoted by K Raheja Corp and the Nirmal Lifestyle Mall developed by the Mumbai-based property developer Nirmal Lifestyle, each covering about half a million sq. ft. , are considered the biggest malls in the country.

According to Mr Vedamani, "some of these proposed malls" are likely to be even bigger in size taking up a "few million sq. ft. of space".

Specialty malls

Another notable trend is that, nearly 10 per cent of the total malls in the country over the next three years would be specialty malls.

"Conversion rate in a specialty mall is nearly 65 per cent while it is only 18-20 per cent in a general mall. The reason being generic malls attract anybody and everybody but the specialty malls offer a focused merchandise to the consumers," according to Mr Susil Dungarwal, a Mumbai-based real estate and retail analyst.

Tier-II cities

While metro cities are expected to grab a major share of the pie, tier-II cities are also in the race. Malls are expected in Nasik, Aurangabad, Ludhiana, Coimbatore, Hubli, Belgaum, Siliguri, Durgapur and in many other tier II cities.

According to RAI's estimate, the National Capital Region would witness the maximum mall development followed by Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai.

Besides, food courts and retail shops, nearly 90 per cent of these malls would also have multiplexes.

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