Nothing lasts ceaselessly, not even the locations that after outlined a metropolis. In Delhi, that fact feels significantly stark once you stroll into Ansal Plaza.
Inaugurated in 1999 in South Delhi, it was the capital’s first mall, a novelty in a metropolis that had not but found weekend mall tradition. Ask a Delhi Boomer or a Millennial, and they’ll communicate of it with a keenness often reserved for first loves. And those that grew up orbiting round DLF Promenade or Choose Citywalk won’t ever fairly perceive what it meant.
Ansal Plaza was the place Delhi first rehearsed the thought of recent city leisure. It housed town’s first Customers Cease. McDonald’s was not only a fast-food joint; it was a courting vacation spot. The amphitheatre hosted live shows and movie promotions. Music World (light submit digital shift) bought cassettes and CDs to a technology that had not but met streaming.
Journalist Deebashree Mohanty remembers watching it rise, brick by brick. Her father, then a senior bureaucrat, had authorities housing within the adjoining Hudco Place complicated. “When Ansals introduced {that a} mall can be arising inside the identical gated complicated, it felt just like the centre of the world had arrived at our doorstep,” she recollects.
There was McDonald’s, in fact. Customers Cease. Shoe shops. An ethnic put on model that everybody recognised. A pub catering to a budding get together crowd. However the actual draw was the central atrium, which doubled as a efficiency area. “I keep in mind attending live shows there, and one significantly massive occasion when Palash and Euphoria carried out,” she says.
Ansal Plaza was greater than only a buying complicated. For younger adults rising up in that period, it was an idea, a hangout spot, and a logo of a brand new type of city life. Most significantly, it was the primary place the place individuals may merely go and “chill.”
India As we speak not too long ago reported on how Noida’s once-thriving The Nice India Place — higher generally known as GIP — now stands largely deserted, stripped of its former buzz. As soon as a weekend staple for NCR households, components of it resemble a shell of what they was. It made me marvel: what has grow to be of Delhi’s first mall? So I went to seek out out.
Now, it resembles a ghost city
The method to Ansal Plaza is poorly lit. The signage is absent. The parking zone, as soon as chaotic, is sort of empty. Inside too, the silence is palpable.
McDonald’s and KFC are among the many few retailers that appear to perform steadily. A gaming arcade, Recreation Palacio, occupies area on the premises, however footfall is skinny.
Other than that, the mall is essentially populated by store workers, safety guards and supply executives selecting up orders.
The escalators will not be purposeful. The bathrooms unclean. The lifts are unreliable. Some sections look half-renovated; others seem forgotten. There are paan stains all over the place, and taking the steps really feels daunting as a result of the mall is so empty.
Higher flooring home a government-owned financial institution workplace and some personal firms — extra purposeful than business.
A person who described himself because the ‘caretaker’ of a pub within the mall, and requested to not be named, says enterprise is barely sustainable. “We pay round Rs 3.5 lakh in hire. The footfall is so low that we can’t get better it. The lifts don’t perform correctly. The escalators cease. Once we method administration, nothing adjustments. We’re simply barely surviving,” he says.
He pointed to a different concern: a liquor store inside the premises. “We have now requested a separate entry and exit for it. Not everybody who walks in comes with the very best intentions. It makes the surroundings really feel unsafe.”
That unease just isn’t summary. Throughout my go to, there have been individuals passing a remark or two and staring, which did really feel a bit uneasy (not one thing you count on inside a mall). The empty corridors, dim staircases and near-deserted flooring lend the place a distinctly unsettling air.
Retailers admit enterprise is sparse. “There is no such thing as a footfall,” a number of say bluntly. A jewelry retailer worker explains their survival in a different way: “We have now an current consumer base. We don’t rely on walk-ins.”
After which there are the spas, operational, however about which nobody is prepared to talk on report.
A second life
Whereas Ansal Plaza has long-lost its sheen, it did get a second life in 2016 after having just about gone into oblivion the primary time.
They relaunched the mall with 16 new manufacturers, with Decathlon being the anchor model.
Did it work? Completely not! Inside a 12 months, issues began taking an unpleasant flip. Decathlon, which anchored the relaunch, closed round 2023, and the remaining, as you realize, is historical past.
Why did it fail?
Some level to competitors. As newer malls in Saket and Vasant Kunj provided multiplexes, sprawling meals courts and higher infrastructure, Ansal Plaza struggled to maintain up, even post-relaunch. Others blame administration neglect.
Timing didn’t assist both. Its 2016 revival coincided with demonetisation — a blow to discretionary spending that retail was ill-prepared to soak up.
Or possibly, simply possibly, as some credulous individuals nonetheless mutter – ‘Is it the curse of Uphaar?
– Ends
