Dhaka, Oct. 26 -- Karnaphuli Garden City Shopping Complex in Dhaka's Shantinagar has shut for good after years of mounting losses.

Once counted among the capital's upscale malls, it buckled under thinning crowds, unpaid service charges and an electricity bill of about Tk 5 million.

Traders said on Sunday that the mall at the Shantinagar-Kakrail intersection slipped commercially for several reasons before the shop owners' association declared it closed on Oct 1.

They trace the decline over the past decade to four main causes: customers drifting away during Shantinagar flyover construction, the COVID-19 slump, the departure of good traders and fraud by a few dishonest sellers.

The shopping complex occupies the ground to third floors of ...