Get Ready To Bid Adieu To Vashi’s Raghuleela Mall That’s Set To Be Demolished Soon

Ask any long-time Navi Mumbai resident about Raghuleela Mall, and they will have a story to tell. So, it came as a surprise to many when plans to demolish the iconic mall were unveiled recently. As reported by Free Press Journal (FPJ), The Wadhwa Group is set to turn this famous, albeit ageing, mall into a sleek, mixed-use complex that promises to redefine Vashi’s skyline.

Raghuleela Mall Set To Be Demolished

It’s hard to picture now, but when Raghuleela opened in the early 2000s, it was a magnet. Spread across 375,000 square feet, this four-level-high mall had everything from a packed INOX multiplex and food courts with long queues to a gaming zone alive with noise, and shops that stayed busy. On peak weekends, it had a footfall of around 30,000 eager shoppers. It felt like the entire city was packed in the mall on weekends!

But time wasn’t kind. The competition got tougher with newer malls such as Inorbit Mall, Seawoods Nexus, and other spaces with better facilities. Inside Raghuleela, the interiors dulled down due to low maintenance, and footfall kept thinning. Today, only a handful of stores, 20 or so, are still open, and they’re not sticking around for much longer.

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The Wadhwa Group Takes Control

The plan, according to FPJ, is clear. The Wadhwa Group will tear down the current structure, probably by late 2025. The next call to action will be a premium mixed-use development with retail shops, offices, and residential spaces, all rolled into one modern complex. The kind of place designed to meet the needs of today’s city: flexible, connected, and future-ready.

Raghuleela isn’t the only one. Center One Mall already met the same fate in 2024, its site now earmarked for a commercial project by Kamdhenu Realities. And while nostalgia hangs heavy (scroll through local Reddit threads and you’ll find plenty of people reminiscing about what Raghuleela once was), there’s no escaping reality. The mall had become what many describe as a dead zone. Its infrastructure fallouts and dwindling footfalls are a testimony to the fact that the mall was largely out of sync with what people expect from a shopping or leisure space today.

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If the Wadhwa Group delivers on its vision, this could be more than just another glass-and-steel complex. It could give Vashi a new centre of gravity, one that works for shoppers, workers, and residents alike. 

Cover Image Courtesy: Sthitaprajna Jena/Wikipedia