Yashwant place in dire straits

Business has been suffering after the iconic Chanakya Cinema was closed downIt was a bustling shopping complex till about two year ago. But today Yashwant Place is only a shadow of its former self. The closure of the neighbouring Chanakya cinema dealt a serious blow to the shopping centre's fortunes. No more: A file photo of Yashwant Place market with Chanakya cinema in the background.Shopkeepers have started noticing a sharp decline in sales and volume of people coming to their shopping complex. The establishment famous for imported goods and better known as 'diplomat market' is now waiting for customers to show up. 'You've got mall'According to shopkeepers, construction of the mall on the backside of the market has blocked one of its entry points. On the other side, a parking lot of a government building has obstructed entry of shoppers. The market has been virtually barricaded from three sides, leaving only one single entrance open and no parking area. So customers are opting for the more convenient Sarojni Nagar market, not far from here. For last two years we are waiting for new cinema hall to come up which was suppose to come by 2011 but there is no sign. Footfall at the market has gone down drastically. Even the volumes of sales have gone down by 30per cent. With the reopening of the hall we can get the buzz back at the market, said Vijay Arora, a shopkeeper at Yashwant Place.The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has handed over the complex to DLF on a lease of 30 years. NDMC got Rs 85.32 crore as against the reserve price of Rs 75 crore. For the 1.69 acre complex, which will be converted into a multiplex on Build-Operate-Transfer basis, the firm has to pay Rs 100 per square feet per month, with a hike of 15 per cent after every three years. Chew on thatComplaining about the number of visitors going down, even the eateries are eagerly waiting for the multiplex to come up.u00a0 There are more than 15 eating joints here and when the Chanakya was running everyone was doing healthy business. But as the hall was razed to ground, even the business has gone down drastically, explained a proprietor of one of the leading eating joints at the market. NDMC had leased the complex to the developer of Chanakya Cinema - Rajesh Khanna - for a period of 30 years. While the lease period ended in 2002, NDMC refused to renew the license. The civic body was getting a license fee of Rs 15.5 lakh per year and claimed that the lessee was making profit worth Rs 1.5 crore per annum.In August 2005, the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of NDMC directing the management of Chanakya to vacate by December 31, 2007. The Chanakya management then went to supreme court where the ruling of the high court was upheld. Chanakya trivia This 1076 seat hall with an annual attendance of 850,000 and a turnover of Rs 15 million, started off in 1970 with Mera Naam Joker and the screening of the 9-45 pm show of Taare Zameen Par at Chanakya cinema here on the night of December 27, 2007 marked the end of the journey for this cinema hall which marked high of good cinema. The father and son Rajesh and Aditya Khanna were running this hall since 1970.