BBMP invites bids multi-level car park, Kidwai hospital

People visiting the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology are set to get relief from parking problems. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has invited bids for building another multi-level parking complex at the hospital.

The three-storey complex will cost Rs 14 crore to build and will accommodate 150 cars and 100 two-wheelers. The project was sanctioned in the BBMP's 2017-18 budget. M K Gunashekar, the then chairman of the BBMP's standing committee on tax and finance, had inspected the hospital and felt it needed adequate parking space.

Speaking to DH, Gunashekar said his visit had followed a request from the hospital's director to find a solution to the parking problem. Established in 1973, Kidwai is the premier state-run cancer hospital in Karnataka and sees thousands of patients and their attendants every day.

The parking complex will replace an old structure which is located behind the main building but is within the hospital's larger compound, a BBMP official said.

According to Kidwai director C Ramachandra, the hospital sees at least 1,000 vehicles every day. Some outpatients and their relatives also drive in. "But there is no parking space. The multi-level car park will help both patients and the hospital staff," he told this newspaper.

Freedom Park car park

The multi-level parking complex at the Freedom Park in the heart of Bengaluru will not open by December as the work is far from over. The project began in 2015 and has already missed three deadlines. The Rs 79-crore complex, which would accommodate 500 cars and as many two-wheelers, will open only in March 2019.

A BBMP official said the bottom surface consisted of a rock that had to be drilled, causing the delay.

In March, the then chief minister Siddaramaiah had inaugurated the half-built complex just before the Assembly elections.