Express Avenue, Chennai Overview

Express Avenue is a mall in Royapettah of Chennai, owned, developed and promoted by Express Infrastructure. Inaugurated in 2010, the mall stands on a total land area of around 10 acres. The premise includes commercial and hospitality sectors as well. E Hotel is the name of the 4-star boutique luxury-lodging, which caters to the guests all year long with its 44 room capacity but the mall is the main attraction of the place. Along with numerous retail outlets and around ten anchor shops like H&M, Pantaloons, Lifestyle and Big Bazar, on different floors of the mall, Express Avenue also has the largest gaming arcade of south India - Games The Shop and the city's largest cinema multiplex Escape. The gaming shop offers consoles like PS4, PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and NDS, as well as software for the consoles. The cineplex is an eight-screen one, designed by California based artist Giovanni Castor. The mall also has kid's play zone called Funcity and a 5D theatre by Pix.

If you are looking for good eating options, Express Avenue mall has that as well. The food court, or EA Garden, as it is called, serves at more than 25 food counters, including international chains like KFC and Pizza Hut. The other cuisines include south India, north Indian, American, Italian, street food and so on. There are lounge bars and pubs as well, like Entrée and Elixir, but they are a part of the hotel premise. You can visit them if you want to. There are parking facilities too, spread over three levels of basement and giving room to 2,000 cars and motorbikes.

The EA Bot at Express Avenue

The latest addition to the dazzling interiors of the Express Avenue mall is the bot that assists the visitors to find their way around the shops. The EA bot was launched in April 2017 as a customer assistant device. It roams around on its own being deployed along the central atrium by the authorities on different floors of the mall complex. The robot works on Artificial Intelligence and thus can process the image of the visitors as well as of the shops. The bot approaches the customers and greets them with its recorded mechanical voice. On its screen, you can find the shops you are looking for as well as the latest deals, sales or offer any of the outlets might have. EA assistant will guide you to the shop of your choice all by its own. They are autonomous and will remind you a bit of the bot from Star Wars.

How To Reach Express Avenue

Public transport routes from all sides connect express Avenue mall. Depending on from which side of the metro city you are coming, you have to hop on the right bus. Most buses will drop you at the T.V.S bus stop, from where the Gate 1 of the mall is 5 minutes' walk away. The front gate can be reached by accessing either the Pattulos Road or the Woods road that fall on the Whites Road. The mall is a famous landmark in Royapettah neighborhood, so you can ask anybody if you get lost.