All clogged roads lead to South City Mall

As you walk through the electronically-operated glass portals of South City Mall, the first thing that hits you is the scale. With over 650,000 square feet of shop-eat-entertain space and a 30,000 square feet central atrium, it doesn’t get bigger than this, certainly not in this city.

It does not take you long to realise that Calcutta’s hottest new hotspot has been designed by an overseas architecture firm specialising in retail. “South City is our first full-fledged design project in India and we are very happy with the end-product we have delivered. This mall could have been in New York, Singapore, Sidney or Johannesburg,” smiles Darryl Skinner, managing director, Bentel Associates of South Africa, which is now doing 40 retail malls across the country.

In terms of design and layout, South City has clearly raised the bar. t2 rolls out a floor-by-floor guide-map of the retail rendezvous:

LOWER GROUND LEVEL

The 72,000-sq-ft Spencer’s Hyper(market) is the star with a focus on household products, white goods and the lady shopper, with a clutch of jewellery outlets and a salon, Eyecatchers. Other outlets on this level include Indus Tree Craft, Aawrun, Bombay Dyeing, My Dollar Store, Fundamental Electronics, Bhagwati Electronics, Sakshi, Chique Fashion, Sia Jewellery, Chemb and Hira Moti.

GROUND LEVEL

This level spells luxury with the central atrium setting the tone. Two of the giant multi-brand outlet anchors — Pantaloons (71,000 sq ft) and Shoppers’ Stop (83,000 sq ft) — take up the ground and first levels, with the vanilla retailers panning out into the foyers. Marks & Spencer, Swarovski, Lladro, Guess, Next, The Body Shop, Damas, Wills Lifestyle, Carbon, Indian Gems & Jewellery, Q&Q Watches, Titan, Infinity, GKB Opticals, Samsaara, Just-In-Vogue, Lucera, Orra, Gatha, Kiah, Little Shop, Himalaya Opticals and the cosy corner of Cookie Man.

FIRST LEVEL

The casual-wear zone with a tilt towards sports fashion, shoes and travel gear. Lacoste, United Colours of Benetton, Planet Sports, Indo Style, Metro Shoes, Catwalk Shoes, Regal Shoes, Upper Class, Lee, Puma, Hidesign, Adidas, Reebok, Nike, Levi’s, Pepe, Jockey, Spykar, Moustache, Woodland, Roncato, Rocia, Kittens, VIP, Van Heusen, Samsonite and Provogue are the key brands here. Puma opens its maiden city outlet.

SECOND LEVEL

The fashion zone for the family, with Louis Philippe, Arrow, The Raymond Shop, Gini & Jony, Reebok Junior, Lilliput, Pumpkin Patch, Weekender Kids, Kanz, Archies, D.C.E, Chemistry, Biba, 109°F, Fi!, Straps, Giovani, Komal Sood, Little Johnnie, Indus League, Hoffmen, Shapes, Jashn Sarees, Sarvottam Sarees, Ritu Kumar, Success, Turtle, Allen Solly, Zodiac, Oxemberg and ColorPlus.... Starmark is a mini-anchor, with its 20,000-sq ft books-music-stationery-gifts spread. This floor is also the entry point to the six-screen Fame multiplex.

THIRD LEVEL

The lifestyle floor with Sonodyne, Bodyline Sports and Osim, Office Linc and Negotiation, Timezone.... This is also the F&B floor, with a 60,000 sq ft spread — a 30,000 sq ft food court, Foodtalk, Foodtalk with Gelato, Not Just Dosa, Sizzlers, State of Punjab & Bengal, Mexican, Hotwich, Mr Potato, Bread Bazaar, Coffee Blue & Juice, Chaat Bazaar, Republic of China, Pizza & Pasta and Yatra Express. Plus, Mainland China and Sigree, Benjarong serving Thai cuisine, Zara offering Spanish Tapas, Kookie Jar and Cafe Coffee Day outlets.

CAR PARK

South City is also the first mall in Calcutta with multi-level car park. Spread across nine levels, it can accommodate 1,300 four-wheelers and 500 two-wheelers, enabling shoppers to drive up to their floor of choice. (How long it will take you to get out of the car park could depend on divine intervention.)

Why

BUYERS

Sukanya Chatterjee, 16 (family in Calcutta, studies in Darjeeling)

What brings you here: I’ve come with my father to check out the mall.

First impression: Wow! It looks great. Calcutta needed something like this.

Prime attraction: Good brands lift a mall’s value and I’m happy that brands like Guess and Ritu Kumar are here. But I wish Mango was also available.

Next visit: Tomorrow!

Ravneet Sharma, 25 (lives on Central Avenue, works at Standard Chartered)

What brings you here: I came with friends and family because we were curious to see the mall.

First impression: It’s one of a kind. Mumbai and Bangalore already have big malls and Calcutta was waiting for this. The glass overbridges and the look deserve special mention. When I saw the mall I thought this cannot be

Calcutta!

Prime attraction: The movie theatre is our main attraction in the mall but there should be more food counters and seating arrangements.

Next visit: As soon as the multiplex opens.

Parthasarathi Bhattacharjee, 40

(film director)

What brings you here: I live close by and saw the mall grow in front of me. I was waiting for it to open and so I took time out to come here today.

First impression: It’s gorgeous but it’s also a constant reminder of the slums behind it.

Prime attraction: Being a film director, my prime attraction is Fame.

Frequency: I will be a regular.

Vidhi Kumar, 23

(management trainee)

What brings you here: I live nearby so I had to come and check out the mall.

First impression: Looks great, almost like an international mall. Calcutta is a growing city and starved of malls so it’s great that something this big has come up. But the staff are not friendly, the debit card system is bad and the mall is not equipped to handle so many people.

Prime attraction: That it’s a mall!

Frequency: Quite often, more on weekends.

Prabha Banerjee, 55 (doctor)

First visit: Last weekend.

Why are you back: I liked something I saw last time and came to buy it today. I brought my husband along too. I like the feeling of space one gets here, it’s not suffocating.

Your favourite city mall till now: Forum

Forum vs South City: This is more spacious even though Forum is easier to access.

Manish Kasat, 28

(lives in Salt Lake)

First visit: I was here for

the inauguration.

Why are you back: The environment, the shops and the atrium.

Your favourite city mall till now: City Centre.

City Centre vs South City: I can’t really compare the two because City Centre is more a hangout zone and South City is more a shopper’s paradise.

SELLERS

Sandeep Marwaha, head-operations, east, Pantaloon Retail

Minus Food Bazaar, the South City Pantaloons is our largest outlet in Calcutta. South Calcutta is the lifestyle hub of the city. The initial response has been extremely encouraging and this store should become one of the biggest in terms of sales and numbers, not only in the east, but the entire country.

Gautam Jatia, CEO, Starmark

While we are very happy with the weekend and holiday footfalls since we opened on January 20, we are also hopeful of weekday walk-ins going up. Being a huge mall, there will always be significant idle footfalls, but conversion will improve with time... We are a little concerned about the traffic around the mall.

Sumantra Banerjee, president & chief executive, retail group of RPG Enterprises

This will be Spencer’s flagship store, and will give Calcutta an international shopping experience it hasn’t seen before. With a 72,000-sq-ft floor-plate on one level, this is the largest food-focused store in the country. It will satisfy all kitchen-related needs.

Why not

The last time I visited South City Mall on Prince Anwar Shah Road, it was a weekday morning and the traffic was bad but not intolerable.

No such luck on Sunday evening. I had been warned by a few well-wishers (now I know they indeed were wishing me well!) that the stretch outside the swank new mall would be BAD. How BAD, I only realised when our car was stuck for 20 minutes on Anwar Shah Road, waiting to take the U-turn in front of South City Mall.

With a single traffic constable struggling to cope with the traffic flow, it was a case of so near yet so far — there was no way one could even open the car door and walk those 100 metres.

The mall-bound cars apart, there were cars leaving or getting back home — South City is after all bang in the middle of a crowded residential area — an auto stand and a bus stand contributing to the congestion. (I learnt later from a resident of the area that the 47B bus stand was earlier located further down Prince Anwar Shah Road but was shifted to the mall entrance while it was coming up).

By the time the car finally rolled into the mall, I could picture myself going into Forum, picking up a top from Anokhi and leaving Elgin Road — all in the time that it had taken me to enter South City Mall.

Once inside the mall, parking was not a problem and it was a smooth ride up to the second-level parking zone. There were no complaints about the time spent in the mall either. But the worst was saved for last.

If entering the mall had been a bother, exiting it was a nightmare. There is only one driveway leading out of the nine-level parking of the mall onto the main road and because traffic had come to a standstill on Prince Anwar Shah Road, we were stuck in the driveway for a good (make that very bad!) 30 minutes. From the first-floor level I looked down helplessly on a sea of cars ahead of me.

Angry and impatient, I could picture myself going to City Centre, catching a Hollywood film and leaving the Salt Lake mall — all in the time that it took me to exit South City Mall.

The mall is great and I am glad that our city has a new destination to boast of. But why on earth has no one — the mall managers or the city administration — lifted a finger to back it up with the basic infrastructure required to support it?

Calcutta is (still) like that only.

A South City Mall visitor

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