The plan of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to construct more commercial complexes is fated to increase the traffic menace in the city while the livelihoods of local vendors are already at risk.
The BDA is planning to build four big shopping complexes at Jayanagar Market, Malleshwaram, Seshadripuram and K.R. Puram Santhe Maidana. The authority also plans to throw up several other malls in various parts of the city.
Right to information activist B.M. Shivkumar said at a press conference held on November 21 that he was shocked when he received the documents that showed the BDA’s poor financial judgment in managing the shopping complexes in city.
BDA owns 15 commercial complexes in the city, including 774 shops and office spaces.
Shivkumar said: “The BDA has to recover huge amount of rental dues from the shops and office spaces. It should first collect rental dues from tenants and then plan for something big, otherwise it’s just a waste of money and will add to the woes of existing traffic problems in the city.”
Asked about the possible traffic problems that may arise due to large number of shopping complexes in the city, traffic expert M.N. Sreehari said, “It’s not that the idea of constructing malls is bad as it will only add to the developing rate of the state, but more complexes may increase the existing traffic problems in the city.”
Shivkumar also stressed upon the issue that the construction of more malls may push up the rentals and it will be impossible for the existing vendors to afford the high cost of new shopping complexes.
Rajkumar Patil, who owns a garment shop at BDA’s shopping complex in Indiranagar, says, “If the BDA is planning to make more malls then it will indirectly affect our business because then there will be more shopping complexes which means more competition, and who knows, the BDA may increase the rents, too.”
T. Shekhar, who owns a local footwear shop at Jayanagar says: “Bangalore already has a large number of malls; I do not know why there is a need to construct more commercial complexes in the city. It will just increase our problems because we are not able to afford the cost of these complexes.”
BDA officials denied that the authority’s finances are shaky and said that BDA does not fund its projects solely, but enters into joint ventures with other companies, and a builder takes the responsibility for construction.
One official said, “The condition of BDA is much better now, but they still have to collect rental dues from few shopping complexes.”
According to the BDA, out of all the proposed places to construct the malls, only the project in Jayanagar has reached the stage of allotment of tenders as of now.
**The story was earlier posted in http://www.thesoftcopy.in/
Sakshi Saxena is a Multimedia Trainee Journalist studying in Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media, Bangalore.