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Bad Planning by Mantri Mall Malleswaram
Written By ranga - 21 March, 2010
Traffic Bangalore Malleswaram Citizen Reports traffic management Traffic jams
Quite a few days back i wrote about the Bad planning of Bigbazaar, where their were very less parking space made available and the vehicles hundreds of them parked on the road or adjecent bylanes, creating major traffic jams in that area.
Now it is the turn of Mantri Mall @ Malleswaram, in the weekend of last week and this week, the entire area is in a mess, by 4 pm in the evening( when i crossed that area) , the mall has put a sign board saying the parking is full. You can see hundreds of vehicles both two wheelers and four wheelers being parked in the adjacent roads, creating traffic jam, which amounted to about 45 mins of travel for a short distance of half a KM. You can see people with vehicles arguing with the police and the mall's security guards for parking.
How can officials let loose of a Big Mall not providing adequate infrastrucuture to the citizens for parking, and smooth manuvering of vehicles on the main road. It is surprising that the CM is inaugurated this last week. Haven't the officials and all checked on the basics in the Mall. Is this the way you put people into hardship. This Road and adjacent roads are major roads, leading to the City Railway Station and also to Yeshwanthpur, Peenya, Rajajinagar, Tumkur Road apart from Malleswaram etc....
Now, you hear the news that, same developers are going to construct a New complex near to the current one. Imagine the more mess it is going to create. Atleast now the authorities should get into action and make the builders provide Major Parking Lot for the visitors. Also, get them rectify the current fault in the entire system, which is creating major chaos.
Please Save Bangalore and also Save Malleswaram too.
COMMENTS
Great opportunity to showcase PRAJA!
kbsyed61 - 3 June, 2011 - 15:30
IDS, Sanjeev,
Great yaar. Appreciate your taking some time off to prticipate in this walk. Don't forget to waer those PRAJA caps.
BTW do we have a PRAJA Banner? If not we should order one for such occassions.
idontspam - 22 March, 2010 - 09:19
The problem of traffic isnt the mall's it is that of traffic management. We always bark up the wrong tree. Its one way good that the Malls limit their parking, they need to discourage personal vehicle travel and make people use the metro which is going to come up right next door. Until then suck it up and move on if there is no parking. No point arguing with the security at the mall and complicating the traffic for ourselves. If somebody puts half a brain they will know this problem is that of a lack of managing the roads, lanes & yeild rules. Of course we wont use even half a brain will we. Because what we dont want to admit we can overlook so we can blame somebody else.
Traffic management not parking
idontspam - 21 March, 2010 - 15:49
This has nothing to do with the parking availability in the mall. The traffic is a mess because of the merge from Sirur park road onto Nagappa road. Sirur park road must be closed for thru traffic onto nagappa road and the mall traffic should be directly entering the mall from sirur park road thru a magic box from Bashyam park (road between BBMP ward office & petrol bunk) across sampige road. Vehicles to city railway station should take the link road (bus route) and not use Sirur park road.
Stand at the sampige theater (millcorner signal) and watch the flow you will know why this makes sense. For our traffic police traffic planning means putting more police people on the ground. It does not mean studying traffic flow creating specific signage, deviations, extra lanes, making turn lanes, dedicating lanes for mall traffic, asking underpasses and ramps to be built etc.
See how when any structure especially malls come up in other countries, turn lanes, medians, signals, stops signs etc is altered all around the area along with the commissioning of the mall. Here everything is the same, more police will be standing around getting frustated along with the public thats all. I pity the constables, they work like robots without any brains from higher up supporting them.
rs - 21 March, 2010 - 17:23
Well, this was one of the issues I discussed in my long letter to various authorities which I also put up here - praja.in/en/blog/rs/2009/02/20/traffic-flow-change-required-malleswaram-area#comment-20727 - Of course none of the people who have any power bothered to pay any attention to this. I found this article today - the last line is rather frightning and shows how BBMP has screwed the mindset of people www.deccanherald.com/content/59182/mall-eswaram-rues-its-fate.html
And the Brigade Gateway mall is yet to open.....
SB_YPR - 24 March, 2010 - 14:22
...in one post. Here goes:
@IDS:
First of all, compliments on your analysis of the traffic flow. I am completely in agreement with you about the underpass next to Bhashyam Park which should solve a lot of problems. In addition, I suggest that Sirur Park Road be made a one-way with traffic permitted from Nagappa Road towards the turnoff for underpass (the spot which you marked X). This will permit vehicles from East and Central Bangalore coming via Seshadripuram to use the underpass and avoid any merging/crossover of lanes/signals at Central Circle.
It may be better to physically barricade lanes 1 & 2 upto mill corner junction so that there is no cutting across to the mall from people arriving on lane 1 by mistake and people stay put in lane 3.
Till underpass is constructed, this is a must. Mantri also needs to improve its traffic flow management - there is only one entry and exit for vehicles into the mall which causes crowding at the gate. Further, a skywalk opposite the mall is an absolute must. Also, as Sanjeev has pointed out, the traffic flow on lane 5 is far higher than lane 3 and the signal times must be adjusted accordingly so as to prevent pileups on Platform Road.
@Srinidhi,
Shouldn't it be in Mantri Groups planning that they have a scientific way to measure the peak footfall into their mall and accordingly plan to accommodate the same?
I wouldn't blame Mantri entirely here. While they must have anticipated a large crowd, in India crowds can sometimes exceed all expectations - take any political rally or even the Big Bazaar mega-discount at Kathriguppe a couple of years ago (the police had to resort to a lathi charge to enable the store to down shutters at midnight). I also believe, like many others on this thread, that this extraordinary crowd is a passing fancy which will evaporate with the passage of time.
BMRCL has an approved notification for parking space which can be built around 100 mts radius of the metro station, where there is no limit to number of floors at all! The only consideration is for fire and AAI regulations..maybe Mantri should use that exemption and build the biggest parking to accommodate people for the biggest mall!
Mantri already has a very large parking area - 1500 cars approx. They use stacked parking facilities (which AFAIK was hitherto used only by the Leela Palace). In that respect, they must be complimented for using modern technology to maximise the use of available space.
In any case, this crowd is all the more reason to build a Metro station on the premises - it will reduce the number of private vehicles (and consequently the congestion in the area) and possibly eliminate the need for additional parking space.
@Sanjeev,
I think we should see whats volume of traffic during peak hrs and wht type of vechiles are playing their. Its mostly BMTC buses, Company buses and KSRTC buses with LCV vechiles.
Are KSRTC buses still permitted on Sampige Road? AFAIK, they use Dr. Rajkumar Road to reach Tumkur Road. If they still ply here, they should be diverted ASAP via Okalipuram and Dr. Rajkumar Road. Moreover, once the satellite bus terminal at Yeshwantpur comes up, this problem will be eliminated.
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