The recent order from the city police to restrict public access to Phoenix Mall of Asia, on Ballari Road, which is now challenged in the High Court of Karnataka, is yet another example of the glaring problem of lack of a holistic approach before clearing big residential and commercial projects in the city, citizen activists have argued.
The police brought out the order citing inadequate parking facilities in the mall which led to traffic woes in the vicinity.
Police Commissioner B. Dayananda, in a letter to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), requested that the partial occupancy certificate (OC) issued to the mall should be withdrawn or cancelled owing to the existing issues.
He has also said that according to the findings of the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) officials, the mall building should have space for 10,000 four-wheelers and two-wheelers, while it currently only has space for over 2,300 cars and two-wheelers.
“In that building, the first four levels house the mall and the levels above have the multiplex. Above that is a tech park. The OC has only been issued for the mall now. The current parking facilities are insufficient and not equipped for peak load. Ideally, they should have more parking while also creating pick-up and drop-off zones for all yellow board vehicles (including autorickshaws) inside the mall, instead of on the service road or GKVK road,” said M.N. Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bengaluru.
When asked if the BTP was consulted by the BBMP before issuing the partial OC, Mr. Anucheth said that it was not.
However, the existing law also doesn’t require for the civic body to consult the BTP before giving an OC to a building. However, for instance, the BBMP asks for a NOC from the BTP in certain types of trade, like entertainment.
“Ideally the BTP needs to be consulted before the civic body gives an OC to all buildings that attract large footfall and vehicle population. This should be the criteria rather than the kind of trade. Such situations may arise even in a large scale apartment,” said Mr. Anucheth.
“The Mall of Asia case is a good example that shows we need to do a holistic impact study of large commercial projects prior to issuing clearances. We mostly work in departmental silos and we need to evolve mechanisms to prevent this.,” said civic activist V. Ravichandar.
Citizens question why OC was issued?
These developments left citizens wondering why an OC was issued to the mall despite it posing what appears to be a slew of problems for residents and commuters in its surroundings.
Ashok Mruthyunjaya, State spokesperson for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), taking to social media, asked, “Who was the engineer who approved such a big mall which does not have ample parking? Was the building bylaws of BBMP followed?”
However, Tushar Giri Nath, Chief Civic Commissioner, BBMP, said that the partial OC was issued only after verifying that things were done according to norms at the time.
“We have not withdrawn the OC yet. We had partially issued it to the portion of the building which complied with our norms including the building laws and zonal regulations. We will now check again if they have violated the norms and diverted the space which was allotted for parking for some other purposes. We will also check if there are violations of any other regulations under which we had issued the OC and if we find that there are violations, then we will surely take action,” Mr. Giri Nath said.
Projects should be cleared on access feasibility
Mr. Ravichandar also pointed out that the criteria for clearing such projects should be primarily based on its access feasibility through public transport (metro including stations in the basement, bus, rail) and walking modes.
“Insisting on more in-house parking is counter productive since it encourages taking out private vehicles. Shared parking solutions across the city needs a policy that incentivises it,” he said.
