LuLu hypermarkets to come up at three Chennai Metro Rail stations

AFTER Coimbatore, Chennai city too is all set to get LuLu’s Hypermarket by early next year. Three hypermarkets will come up in Chennai Metro Rail stations — Shenoy Nagar, Chennai Central and Wimco Nagar.

According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), their contractor Grace Services has tied up with the LuLu Group in this regard.

“While we have quite a few food outlets in many of the stations, these popular hypermarkets will draw crowds and may give a push to our ridership. When such shopping options come up in station space, it will make it seamless for shoppers to quickly buy and leave,” an official said.

At Shenoy Nagar, the Metro Rail station is underground and the Thiru Vi Ka Park too was opened in February last year with a host of amenities like children’s play area, badminton court and open air theatre among others. The station was also built with a massive space in the basement area for property development to have various retail and food outlets and parking.

G. Charles Vasanthakumar, proprietor of Grace Services, said that in Shenoy Nagar Metro Rail station the hypermarket would come up in the basement over about 1 lakh sq. ft. While in Chennai Central Metro Rail station, it would be built at the concourse level (or the ticketing area) over an area of 40,000 sq.ft, at Wimco Nagar Depot station, it would come up above the depot facility in nearly 60,000 sq.ft space, he added.

“We expect that those who reside in Shenoy Nagar may mostly use the facility. At Wimco Nagar and Chennai Central, it could be mostly travellers who get off the train, drop in to shop, return home. The work to set up the hypermarket will start in early July and by March next year, we expect to open it in all three stations,” he said.