Ghaziabad fun park set to bustle in December

Rs 50 crore project is developed by AEZ group

The approach road to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh via National Highway 24 harbours a new hope "" dullness is out, entertainment is in. That is, if the AEZ shopping mall-cum-amusement and water park-cum-3-screen cinema-cum food court-cum club house takes off by the second week of December, as stated.

The 12-acre (one acre is 3,928.25 square metres) AEZ site on the Vaishali (Ghaziabad)-NH 24 crossing is witness to a large-scale construction of a multi-pronged nature.

According to Sanjay Kakkar, who manages the project, it's one of a kind ""the only plot to house so many facilities under one roof. "There are five components under one roof, and this differentiates it from any other facility in the country," says Kakkar.

When asked what AEZ stood for, Kakkar said it was just a brand name and did not precisely stand for much else, besides the first letter, which comes from the AEZ group's flagship, Aeren's Developers and Engineers Ltd, "a Rs 500 crore plus company."

The AEZ project on NH 24 sits on two adjacent plots of land that the company acquired in 2001. The Ghaziabad Development Authority gave the group 11 acres of land on lease for 90 years to develop a water park.

The remaining acre is commercial space. When Aeren's bought it, the commercial space was available for Rs 9,000 per square metre. Today, in three years, it has escalated to Rs 12,000 per square metre.

Asked about the location, Kakkar said his promoter, Sanjiv Gupta, the 41-year-old owner of the Aeren's group, wanted to dig in only if there was ample parking space.

"The location is ideal. It is on NH-24, abutting on to the Delhi border, and just across Noida. So we expect people from UP, Delhi, and the highway traffic to converge at the AEZ," Kakkar said.

With the cost of development being Rs 50 crore, Kakkar is hoping that 75 per cent of the overall commercial space will either be occupied or sold when the project takes off in December.

The water park will be maintained by Ahmedabad-based Saya Amusement "as they are the largest ride manufacturers in the country," Kakkar said. The three-screen cinema is slated to be operated by Zee's Fun Republic.

In the shopping mall, common brands like Pizza Corner, Cafe Coffee Day, and Music World have already signed up. But Kakkar said, "Soon you'll see very prominent names, particularly from the Far East, jostling for the mall carpet. The names are so international that even people from south Delhi will come all this way."

Aeren's has a number of firsts under its belt. With the AEZ square, also known as PVR Vikaspuri, the group established the first multiplex in north India; they were the first to bring IMAX cinema to north India, first to foray into a "Gold Souk" in the country""a mall exclusively for gold jewellery, to open in Gurgaon next month, and they are also the first to be building an "Interiors Mall" on Mathura Road in Faridabad, Haryana. It is no surprise why the group again chose to be the first to have so many facilities under one roof.