After the Ampa Skywalk now another and much bigger mall has opened in Chennai and that is the Express Avenue Mall situated just off Anna Salai (Mount Road) and Club House Road, at the Express Estate which used to house Indian Express Newspaper office which paved way for this Express Avenue Mall (or just EA Mall).  While Indian Express relocated to Ambatur Industrial Estate.  Express Avenue is said to be the fashion statement of the raising Chennai and is said to be the largest lifestyle mall in South India.  It is said to be a Rs. 750 crore project and has a space of 15,00,000 square feet.  It is located surrounded by Pattulos Road, Woods Road, Whites Road, General Patters Road which are the arterial roads which connect with Mount Road.

Anyway the entry to the Express Avenue Mall is via the Whites Road by foot and for the vehicles it is via the General Patters Road and opposite Melody Theatre, for both Two Wheelers and Four wheelers.  Otherwise this Express Avenue Mall faces the Whites Road as the common entrance.  This is located very very near to the Royapettah Clock Tower (Royapettah Manikoondu).

Parking:

Since this is just the initial stage, the parking was a tough thing to achieve and it is located on the basement of the Express Avenue Mall and it is spacious but due to lack of staff it was tough to part your vehicle somewhat but still they were trying their best to help us park.  The parking charges for the EA Mall is very, very high when compared to other malls in Chennai like Spencer’s Plaza, Ampa Skywalk, Abirami mall, etc.  The parking charge for two wheelers is a whopping Rs. 20! and while for the four-wheelers (cars especially) is just Rs. 30!  I wonder how they came to such high price for two wheelers!  But there is no restriction in hours as such in parking, you can park for any hours but I wonder nobody will park for more than at least 3 hours at the maximum.

Big Bazaar:

The huge attraction for Ampa Skywalk was Tata Star Bazaar while for the Express Avenue is Big Bazaar which opened its store which is said to be biggest among the stores in Chennai and is the first store in Royapettah, Chennai.  I will share my shopping experience at Big Bazaar in another post soon.

Other Stores:

The other prominent stores which has already opened their shop are Lifestyle, Marks & Spencer, Peter England, Allen Solly, Chemistry, Sony, Laptop Plus, Chemistry, Titan, Hidesign, Lee, Levi’s Zimson and the usual stores which can be found on Chennai malls!  Other stores to come up at EA are Max, Westside, Odyssey, Hamleys, Sportxs, Also is expected to open the shops soon are Sathyam Cinemas, which is expected to open a eight screen next generation multiplex spread across 70,000 square feet.  And a 50,00 square feet food court, as well as a boutique hotel.

Fun City:

Another prominent attraction of Express Avenue is the Fun City which is nothing but a play area for children and adults alike with arcade games, children’s shooting games, all coin operated games, carousel, hammer, bumper cars, and many more in a single place.  There is an exclusive smaller kids play area with slides, glides and much more, for which the price is set at Rs. 120 per one hour.  Fun City is a great place to be with your kids who will surely enjoy their time but with a high range price for each of them.  Funcity also houses an exclusive birthday party hall.

According to me Express Avenue impressed me a lot but since many stores have not yet opened and hence I could not judge on how good it is when compared to Spencer’s Plaza but as far as the shopping place is concerned it seems smaller than Spencer’s Plaza but if you take into account the whole of EA Mall then it could be the biggest mall in Chennai.  I could also see many security personnel with walkie-talkies in plain clothes in every floor of the mall, which means that they are putting extra security in place for the mall at least in initial stages and hope this continues in the future as well.  Surely, this place is going to be a great place to hang out for many just like many other malls in Chennai, especially for youngsters and could turn out to be a great style statement of Chennai indeed.