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SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES
Meeting with Commercial Street (CSt) Merchants Association
Written By psaram42 - 28 April, 2009
Bangalore Praja Meeting Action Commercial Street Pedestrian Infrastructure
The meeting with Mr. Shyam Melwani and Mr. Nazim Sait the President and Vice presidents of the association respectively, took place at their board room situated at the Dispensary Road.
The recent closure of the Kamraj road parking by the Army was a setback for the CSt shop keepers business. The reason for the closure was a problem between the Army and the association. People urinating along the wall, safety, security and garbage dumping during the night were some of the problems faced by the Army authorities. The army would like the BBMP to maintain the Urinals built by Army. BBMP has no jurisdiction over the parking area provided by the Army as the land belongs to the Army.
The main requirement of the Association is an adequate parking area at a distance of not exceeding 250 to 500 meters from the commentarial street. The access to CSt is mainly from the Kamraj road side. That from the Shivaji Nagar Side is not so popular. This has caused a divide in the association itself as the shops on Kamraj Road side have an advantage.
We also heard about a dream project of providing about 4000 capacity under ground car park at Parade ground, MG road. This car park will be provided with 4 under ground tunnels opening at 4 locations serving Brigade road, MG road, and at both ends of CST. This is acceptable solution as far CSt Merchants are concerned. They can provide Shuttle service up to the parking lot. This will serve the entire CSt Merchants uniformly. This appears to be an ultimate solution to the parking problem, acceptable to all the Merchants of CSt.
CSt shopkeepers association takes care of Garbage, Hawkers, and beggars problem themselves. There is no back entry to CSt. The trucks have to come only during specific time well before the street is open to business. pedestrianization is no issue at all.
The ball is in Praja court. The CST association is all for cooperating with Praja to go ahead full steam.
PSA
[post was moderated to remove some unconfirmed material - moderator]
COMMENTS
silkboard - 28 April, 2009 - 04:25
promoted Anantharam's comment to placeholder post for sharing minutes of this meeting. All, please let us know how this meeting went.
idontspam - 28 April, 2009 - 04:34
.... a dream project of providing about 4000 capacity under ground car park at Parade ground, MG road. This car park will be provided with 4 under ground tunnels opening at 4 locations serving Brigade road, MG road, and at both ends of CST.
This is wonderful news!!! I am happy they want to do that. We should thank them profusely when they end up actually doing it. When do they start?
Rithesh - 28 April, 2009 - 04:57
Thanks for the update Ananthram sir.
Are we moving towards a pedestrian only street or are these plans on hold till the underground parking complex/other parking facilities come up?
Also what is the status on Kamaraj Road is the parking still banned there?
"The ball is in Praja court. The CST association is all for cooperating with Praja to go ahead full steam."
What do they expect from Praja?
Comml St. & Brigade Rd - Parking & Pedestrianization
Naveen - 28 April, 2009 - 05:06
Mr.Ananthram has summarized what was discussed during the meeting.
At the meeting itself, I had felt that the idea to build pedestrian tunnels may not be practical due to very long lengths & the very extensive work involved with severe disruption. I have not seen such long pedestrian tunnels anywhere in the world - London's Underground (subway train system) has a few long ones for interchanges, but even these are not as long as what is being proposed here ! Utility by pedestrians also remains a big question mark in very long, underground walkways. Besides, there will be heavy costs for lighting & ventilation.
My take is that the UG parking below Parade grounds served by shuttles at a cost is the best option, else even this may not work satisfactorily as the costs for running the dedicated shuttle services with variable volumes have to be met, somehow.
A better option is to route the Hop-On/Off buses past these points, including a busway through Brigade rd & Comml St itself (the width would be sufficient if pedestrianization is carried out at both streets). Thus, buses will then serve also as shuttles for pickups & dropoffs at Brigade/MG Rd & Comml St, thus enabling car users also to take them for these short hauls, assuming of course that once the parking facility comes up, parking would be banned on Brigade rd as also Comml St..
The Ho-Ho buses would then also serve as departure & arrival options too for those coming directly by bus from elsewhere & if connected to the Metro station at Plaza & Trinity, it may help those arriving & departing by Metro also & may become much more viable than at present.
What are the likely Pedestrianization of CST road map objectives
psaram42 - 28 April, 2009 - 09:09
Here are some that come to my mind:
1. A single lane Access to Merchant Goods Trucks during non business hours only.
2. No Parking during business hours.
3. Unrestricted Pedestrian access during business hours.
4. Good attractive street furniture
5. A competitive, children friendly, pedestrian road design by competent architects of Bangalore or country.
6. Sufficient Car park near by
7. Central Car park like the one dreamed by Army at Parade ground.
8. Shuttle to the above Central car park
9. Take BBMP, Police into confidence at every stage
10. Get good BMTC bus connectivity at both ends of CST.
11. Get a suitable law passed by Karnataka State Government Legislative Assembly and BBMP
12. Etc.
PSA
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