Agra gets a Mughal age shopping plaza

In a bid to lend a Mughal-era ambience to shopping in the city of the Taj, Quality Constructions Ltd, an Agra-based real-estate developer, announced the completion of its Taj shopping plaza project near Taj Mahal on Monday.

Talking to Business Standard about the project, Quality Constructions Director Prashant Jain said the shopping plaza had been designed by the company in an area of 1,800 square metres with 63 shops at a cost of Rs 2 crore. The plaza is located less than a kilometer away from the Taj, making it the closest commercial complex from the monument.

Jain claimed that the shopping plaza had been designed according to the specifications provided by Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), which is the nodal agency to undertake development in 1 km radius around Taj Mahal.

With clear directions from HUDCO to reflect the Mughal architecture in the shopping plaza, he said, the company had refrained from use of concrete and bricks in the building and relied only on red sandstone in the structure. Both the stones and stone-workers had to be imported from Rajasthan, he added.

Being close to the Shilp Gram, it again had the possibilities of being a commercial success, he added. He said that this was not the first tourist-centric project of the company as it had earlier developed a similar shopping complex in Fatehpur Sikri at a cost of Rs 4 crore.

It was a successful venture with almost 100 percent tenancy, he said. The project had also been awarded the "Best Building of Year -2007" award by the central public works department.

The Taj Shopping Plaza project had been designed to cater to the shopkeepers conducting their business at the eastern gate of the Taj Mahal as these shops were to be demolished due to the security threat they posed to the monument.