Artist’s impression of the proposed mall

The northern suburbs of the city will get their first taste of organised retail with a mall bearing the Pantaloons label.

The mall in Madhyamgram will be part of a housing estate, Sisir Kunj, being developed by Bengal Shelter Housing Development Ltd, a joint venture company with Bengal Housing Board.

Located on NH 34, linking Calcutta with north Bengal, the 200,000-odd-sq-ft retail space promises to offer the Pantaloons bouquet to residents of the northern suburbs like Madhyamgram, Barasat, Barrackpore and Sodepur.

The Kishore Biyani-promoted The Future Group, which owns Pantaloons, has snapped up the retail property.

The buzz in the real-estate circles is that Reliance was also eyeing this property as part of its nationwide retail rollout, but was pipped to the post by Pantaloons.

“We want to build it as a destination mall equipped with shopping, food, entertainment and a multiplex,” said Manish Agarwal of Pantaloons Retail.

The newly-introduced formats selling food, furniture, consumer electronics, books and music are sure to feature, along with Big Bazaar, the general merchandise format.

“We are yet to freeze the format. The company has many new products to offer now, catering to the needs of a wide cross-section of consumers,” added Agarwal.

The target date for opening the Madhyamgram-Barasat mall is early 2008, as Bengal Shelter managing director Samar Nag has promised to hand over the property to Pantaloon “in one year”.

Being part of the 900-unit-strong estate, spread over 40 bighas, the mall will find a captive audience apart from the large catchment area of the northern suburbs.

The property, tentatively titled Pantaloons Mall, will be the furthest such development from the city centre.

So, what makes the retail major bet so big on a mall 22 km north of Calcutta? “The group has been running a Big Bazaar on VIP Road for the past four-five years. We have many people visiting us from the Barasat and Madhyamgram area. This gave us the confidence to venture further north,” said Agarwal.

Pioneer Properties brokered the deal between Bengal Shelter and Pantaloons.

“Bengal is ready to ride a retail boom and both Reliance and Pantaloons are aggressively tying up with real-estate developers to get a headstart. In the end, it’s a win-win situation for the consumer,” said a retail watcher.