For transit passengers and thousands of residents in the South, more shopping and entertainment options are in store as a PVR multiplex and a mall will be opened at Chennai airport’s new multi-level car parking (MLCP). Now that the parking space has been opened, work is on to complete the theatre and shops at the earliest.
Chandrakant Kankaria, director of the Olympia Group, said the interiors and all the other work had been completed at PVR. “They are waiting for certain permissions, and once they get it, they will open it,” he said, adding that a 30,000-sq.ft food court will commence operations along with the cinemas.
Two other sources in the film industry said the screens would go up as soon as they obtained the local clearances. PVR Cinemas already has a huge presence in the State in places including Chennai, Coimbatore and Vellore. In Tamil Nadu, PVR has 83 screens in 13 properties with a total seating capacity of 20,279.
Apart from housing PVR Cinemas, the parking will have some of the marquee names in the retail and food and beverage space. Two anchor clients have signed up for a huge space here. “Reliance Retail has picked up a huge space here for brands in its portfolio. Pantaloons is another anchor client,” he said. Starbucks has also picked up a space.
“So, we will have two large anchor clients, one mini-anchor and over 100 vanilla stores. For the mini-anchor, we are in talks with two-three retailers and will freeze it,” Mr. Kankaria added. Most of these projects are expected to go live towards the end of the first quarter of 2023.
According to him, the whole project was done keeping in mind the needs of passengers arriving and departing from the airport as well as those residing in the vicinity of the airport complex. “This will serve as a neighbourhood destination for areas including Chrompet, Pallavaram and the dense residential area around the airport. For them, this will be a neighbourhood shopping and lifestyle destination,” Mr. Kankaria said.
“It’s a revenue share agreement with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for 13.5 years. And then the whole asset gets transferred to AAI,” he added.
According to AAI officials, the options have been planned for transit passengers who may have a lot of time in between two flights. “Many transit passengers who travel to Chennai airport may have a three-four hours or sometimes even an overnight stay, and during such times, it is good to have such options at the airport so that the wait is not tiring,” an official said.
