Garuda Mall in the City centre is a good example of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) wayward style of functioning and neglect.
Long before the mall was built, the Palike had planned a parking lot at the space in view of growing traffic in and around M G Road, but shelved the project at the last minute.
Well, the story is not about what compelled the BBMP, the Directorate of Urban Land Transport as well as the Urban Development Department to allow a project — meant originally for a parking lot — to be hijacked by private players for a multi-storey mall.
It’s rather about the exorbitant parking fee the mall has been charging. It charges Rs 25 for a two-wheeler parking and Rs 50 for a four-wheeler, thus violating Palike’s parking policy.
The BBMP had recently proposed a parking policy with three slabs — premium parking, business parking and off-street parking. For two-wheelers, it proposed to charge Rs 15 per hour for premium parking, Rs ten per hour for business parking and Rs five per hour for off-street parking. For four-wheelers, the charges were Rs 30, Rs 20 and Rs 15 per hour respectively.
Fee not specified
But Palike officials says they are “helpless” in case of Garuda Mall as their hands are “tied” by the terms and conditions of the agreement. BBMP commissioner M Lakshminarayana said, “The agreement between the BBMP and the Garuda Mall management does not specify the parking fee. So we cannot do anything for at least 30 years till the time the agreement comes to an end.” So the Palike will have no say in how much parking fee should be charged at the mall for the next 20 years.
Civic issue expert, V Ravichandar, described the agreement as unfortunate. “Garuda Mall stands as an example of private interest being put ahead of public interest. We have to live with the consequences of what had happened in the past.”