The Grand Mall, Chennai

The list of mall included in Chennai city seems to increase day by day. Till about last year, Chennai had Citi center, Ampa mall, Abirami Mega mall and Express Avenue. All these came into existence post year 2008.

Now, after Pheonix at Velachery, Forum Vijay at Vadapalani which opened early part of this year, the latest addition to Chennai is Grand Mall at Velachery. This is located on Velachery - Tambaram main road very near the Velachery metro rail station.

As of now, Croma, Shopper stop and food court is open. Many others are expected to open in due course of time.

                
                                 

Compared to Pheonix mall, this is comparatively a smaller mall. Its said to be about 3.5 lacs sq feet. Its just about 2KM from Pheonix mall.

One of the attraction seems to be 'food street' as advertised. But, it is yet to be completely open or occupied.

With online shopping site like flipkart, Jubang, Snapdeal,ebay and many others now being increasingly used by technology savvy people of India primarily due to convenience and better discount offered, one needs to see as how these malls keep up its attraction with buyers and thereby break-even, considering quantum of capital investment and recurring investments.

Anyways,consumer would have multiple choices to have a real time look at products. By this consumer can also compare the prices with online web store, when they really decide to buy.

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The Phoenix Market City, Chennai

In last 4 to 5 years, there have been quite a few malls which have come up in Chennai. The latest addition is ‘The Phoenix Market City’ Mall at Velachery. This is supposed to be one among the biggest mall is South India with a stated measurement of over 2 Million sq feet and it had surpassed Express Avenue mall, Rayapettah in size.

Being near to my apartment(approx 1 Km), once I heard that mall is opened,  visited the mall yesterday evening. Yes… it was open and understood from information desk, it’s a ‘soft’ open (I was wrong in thinking only IT / management folks use jargon)….. So what would be ‘hard’ open?..... looks like that would be the 'official' opening :-).

Since, there was no official announcement and being a week day evening not much of crowd around in the mall. Interestingly, one can find Jewelry and saree outlet (RMKV) in the mall and so is food joint ‘Nandoos’, which is yet to open. Use to have food at ‘Nandoos’ during my project stint at South Africa couple of years back. 

Looks quite huge, however not all outlets are open, many are doing their interior including the hyper market – Big bazaar. In addition to this, the complex is expected to have a hotel and residential apartments too for which construction is being carried out. 

hmmmm…..In a month time, this spot at Velachery would become a popular destination at Chennai. 

Aside to this, to a social conscious mind, just wondering with each passing year, there has been an increase deficit in electricity availability in the state, further with many more buildings coming up, just wondering as where the state would be heading towards in next few years on electricity requirement?. Another one is traffic, this could turn out to be a major bottle neck at the entrance side, once the entire complex becomes operational near check post at the Velachery main road, as already this road becomes chocked of traffic during peak hours.

Anyways, Velachery is becoming a city by itself, one may not need to step out of Velachery for their needs. From a personal perspective, once in a month visit to Express Avenue mall may not happen in the future.

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Cyclone - Neelam

After Sandy the 'big brother' cyclone lashed NY, Chennai and surrounding area is ready to face the little sister cyclone 'Nilam'.

As per report, Nilam is currently crossing Mahabalipuram from 5.00 PM onwards with gusty wind, the rainfall is less and expected to cross in about 2 hours time.

It has been intermittently raining since yesterday morning at Chennai.

Today, morning we had a bit of sun coming out in morning, however since 2:00 wind speed has increased though its just drizzling.

Had been to terrace of our building at about 6:00 PM and could feel the pressure of the wind, should be in range of 50~70 Kmph. Interesting, to see clouds just moving across in great speed.

Power has been shot down most part of city.

Chennai had received 50% excess rainfall since start of North east monsoon around Oct 20th and as usual the Chennai's infrastructure woes continues due to rains. Further, fortunately rainfall is pretty less while Nilam is crossing.

Lets hope we receive lesser rainfall in the next few days, as we are approaching 'Deepavali', otherwise Chennai would just float.

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Why not AC compartment in suburb train?

Well, its my first blog article on Chennai, which is more related to railway infrastructure

I happened to travel through Chennai MRTS from Velachery to light house today. Some of my thoughts which flashed on my mind, on which I do not have answers.

• Why are most of the station from Velachery to Beach remain in-complete, can we not plan for smaller station, if there is going to be an estimated budget overrun and then keep expanding?.
• I found places dirty and waste dumped all around, can it not be maintained. Don't say the public will not pay for cleanliness, in last couple of years, number of National highway roads has become express ways, which are very nicely maintained and road users pay for the same, like Chennai - Bangalore highways. If it can be done for Road, why not for railways.
• We see Volvo buses on Chennai, Bangalore road on similar line can a coach not be made A/C on the MRTS train with higher charges collected for the same.

In general Indian railways need to think and raise the bar on service offerings, when national highways is doing it in infrastructure development, why not railways? .

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