Chill out in the mall but...are you safe?

Wed, May 7 01:05 AM

All of us have been frisked at malls. HT City looks beyond the glass and the chrome and finds out who is watching the countless hordes as they shop, eat and drink .

Select City Walk was declared the Most Secure Mall in India at the India Retail Forum held in Mumbai last month. And why? Because they not only have security guards and cameras, they have sniffer dogs, metal detectors and a team of ladies who escort the women to their cars at night.

"The customers coming here look for an environment of health and safety. Look at what happened in Sarojini Nagar.

Even Ansal Plaza had a bomb scare," said Sunil Duggal, of Vision Security, which looks after security for Select City Walk. Duggal informs us that Ansal Plaza and TDI Malls too have asked these guys to beef up their security.

At Ambi Mall in Gurgaon, the guards are mostly ex-service men. Besides the usual training, these guys are also taught how to treat their customers.

Fazal Jamil, GM CatVision, a security integration firm which is currently working with Unity Group's upcoming mall in Shahadara, says that the nouveau builders in Delhi are too budget conscious to make security a priority. "CCTVs that are essential for security are only considered if money is left.

Only the older, reputed builders take an interest in proper security," he says. Another problem plaguing Delhi's builders is the inflation of Chinese security goods in the market.

"They are cheaper and so small builders would rather compromise on security," he said. According to RS Roy, Convener, India Retail Forum, "There is no concept of security in Indian malls and we have overlooked this issue because nothing untoward has happened so far.

" Roy adds that most malls compromise on spaces for security checks in order to open more stores. Akhil Arora, the owner of Chicane, a pub in Spice Mall, says "I have no complaints with security here.

All checkpoints are looked after, but I have to have my own bouncers who take care of clients. If someone is very drunk we would rather have our own people ensure that he reach the car park safely.

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