Lucknow, three more Uttar Pradesh cities to get new malls

Lucknow, Nov 12 (IANS) Real estate developer Big Apple will invest Rs.10 billion to develop shopping malls in four cities in Uttar Pradesh, including the state capital, the company said here Wednesday.

'Our first shopping mall, Phoenix United, will come up in Lucknow by June 2009,' company director Priyank Tayal told reporters. 'It will have an area of 575,000 square feet, the biggest in this part of the state.'

Similar malls will also come up in Varanasi, Agra and Bareilly in the next three years, he said.

The total development plan of over approximately 4.5 million square feet will involve an investment of over Rs.10 billion, Tayal said.

'We are proud to announce that the mall in Lucknow will be the first to have a six-screen multiplex in this region besides a nightclub,' he added.

Currently, there are four shopping malls in Lucknow that have come up in the past five years.

While Kanpur has three malls, Allahabad, Varanasi and Meerut have one each. Two more are going to open shortly in Varanasi.