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DALAL STREET SPIKES

Visakhapatnam, one of the fastest growing cities in the state, is slowly getting a cosmopolitan look. The city is witnessing a huge demand for shopping malls, thanks to the boom in industrial and business sectors, which has ensured a change in lifestyle and fashion preferences.

The populace according to city watchers is now spending more on readymade garments, food items, gift items, household items and the like and clearly the city does not have sufficient shopping malls to meet the burgeoning demand.

CMR Shopping Mall is the city's only big shopping mall and shops located in the mall have been doing brisk business with close to 5,000 customers visiting the mall daily. This number goes up during the festival seasons.

The mall was started by the Chandana Group a year back with huge investments to encash on the growing demand for branded items. "We have set up this mall in a 60,000 sq ft area consisting of five floors. In addition to all household articles, gift items, readymade garments and clothes, we are also selling gold and silver ornaments in this mall. The mall also has a fast food centre. The business growth has been satisfactory. In fact, we are planning to set up a shopping mall in Hyderabad soon," Chandana Ramana, managing partner of CMR Shopping Mall, told Business Standard.

The growth in industrial and business sectors has seen an increased spend on readymade goods, etc especially from the large number of working class and office employees of the Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam Port, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited's refinery, the naval dockyard, Coramandel Fertilisers, Essar group Hy-grade pellets and several other private and public sector companies, apart from a large number of private and public sector banks and insurance companies.

To cash in on the demand for readymade garments and food items, especially from the youth, in the last two to three years several large scale readymade garments shops, expensive fast food centres, super markets like Trinetra and Nilgiris and electronic goods shops have also come up.

These kind of shops are seen in most commercial complexes, especially in Dwarakanagar, Dhabagardens, Siripuram and Gagadamba Junction. But this only indicates that there is a tremendous scope for big shopping malls in Visakhapatnam, the state's second largest city.

"Visakhapatnam is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and is slowly getting a cosmopolitan look. In addition to the HSBC Information Technology Centre, several other IT companies are showing keen interest in starting their operations in Vizag. Also, several other industrial units like Gangavaram Port, Pharma City, Apparel Park, Special Economic Zone and several tourism projects are expected to come up in and around the city. With all these developments, the purchasing power of the local people will go up tremendously. Keeping this in mind, Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) is planning to develop huge commercial complexes particularly in Siripuram area and at the same time the city needs two or three big shopping malls like Shoppers shop, Life Style at posh localities like Siripuram and Dwarakanagar," S A Rehanam, chairman of VUDA, told Business Standard.