NRI to build India's largest retail mall

PNC Menon has set his sights on Silicon Valley for a 'shoppertainment' mall.

After building royal palaces, majestic villas, grandiose mosques and posh hotels in the Gulf, a non-resident Indian has set his sights on India's Silicon Valley to build the country's largest retail mall.

PNC Menon, who has lived in Oman for the last three decades, is embarking on his new venture - Sobha Global Mall in the heart of the city at an estimated cost of Rs.15 billion ($345 million).

"As of today, our upcoming mall project will be the largest in India, spread over 17 acres with a built up area of 2.8 million sq. feet. The mall complex is being developed on the site where old Minerva Mills of the National Textile Corporation (NTC) was located. It was bought for Rs.660 million ($15 million) in an open auction.

Apart from a shopping complex, an amusement park, 192-room plush hotel, convention centre, multiplex and smart offices, the mall will boast of an Olympic size ice skating rink, the first of its kind in the sub-continent," Menon told reporters on Thursday.

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