Revenue reaches almost pre-Covid levels at Elante Mall, cinemas continue to struggle

Officials from the management of Elante Mall said that by September, they were able to recover 90 per cent of their business, compared to the same months of 2019.

The Commission after hearing the matter opined that the policy/terms and conditions existing on the date of purchase of the movie ticket must remain valid till the utilisation of the ticket.(Representational/File Photo)

FOR THE first time since the Covid-19 pandemic swept over the country, the largest shopping mall in Chandigarh, Elante, has managed to attain pre-Covid sale numbers. The cinemas inside the mall, however, continue to struggle and data showed that they have recovered only up to 10-15 per cent of their pre-Covid sales ever since their reopening in July this year.

Officials from the management of Elante Mall said that by September, they were able to recover 90 per cent of their business, compared to the same months of 2019. “The number is expected to touch 100 per cent in October. The vaccination programme has helped us a lot in the revival of business. It has instilled a sense of confidence among people to move out,” said Anil Malhotra, executive director of corporate affairs, hospitality, offices, and CSR, Elante Mall (Nexus malls) adding that Chandigarh region’s revenue recovery was quicker than that of malls in other states.

Another official added that last Diwali, they were really going through a rough time. They had given exemption of rent up to September 2021 to the store owners as well.

When asked about the recovery by cinemas, the official said that cinemas, despite having reopened, have still not been able to recover and lack of fresh, new content was one of the biggest reasons for the same.

“We have just managed to recover only about 10 to 15 per cent. It is because there is no new content as of now in the cinemas. We did see some hope after movies, like Bell Bottom, were released and did fine. Now we hope that the cinemas may cope a bit after Sooryavanshi releases,” said Jayen Naik, senior vice president of operations at Project Nexus malls.

An official added that during the course of the Covid lockdown, they have added over 45 new stores at the mall and refurbished 10 others.

ELANTE HAD FACED A ROUGH TIME LAST YEAR

During the first Covid wave, the Elante mall management had to face a tough time after 90 per cent of its F&B outlets had decided not to reopen citing that the mall had refused to give them any relief in rent for the entire lockdown period. After several protests, the mall had announced relief, which the management later extended till September this year.

CONTACTLESS PARKING

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To ensure contactless parking, the mall had decided to implement FastTag parking, where tags were scanned at the entrance of the mall and parking charges deducted automatically when the vehicle exited. It was said that this move had considerably reduced the waiting time at the exit points of car parking. The mall had also implemented new software for all its employees and retail partners through which they could raise a complaint about issues directly to the concerned department on a real-time basis.

Hina Rohtaki

Hina Rohtaki is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express, Chandigarh. She covers Chandigarh administration and other cross beats. In this field for over a decade now, she has also received the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award by the President of India in January 2020. She tweets @HinaRohtaki ... Read More

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