Giving a big boost to its retail initiatives, realty major DLF has stitched together plans to set up the country's largest mall in Gurgaon with nearly 40 lakh square feet lettable area and a chain of multiplexes in major cities.Slated to be India's largest mall, the Mall of India will come up on 32.87 acres of land. Designed by Jerde Partnership, an international firm of architects, the under-construction mall has a total lettable area of around 39 lakh square feet.The realty company is also planning to build multiplexes in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Ludhiana.DLF, which is hitting the capital markets on Monday with a public offer of Rs 9,625 crore, has worked out an ambitious strategy to expand its retail business covering the entire spectrum of the sector.It has already tied up with Trent, the Tata Group's retail business arm, to partner them across all intended retail formats, occupying a minimum of 150,000 square feet in each mall."The size of our malls is also increasing due to consumer demand for greater retail diversity and we believe that in the future, size will be an important determinant of success for malls," a DLF official said.DLF has also inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Metro Cash and Carry to identify suitable retail spaces in various locations across the country.
