No progress made on numerous multi-level parking facilities

With lack of adequate parking a problem in traffic-choked Bengaluru, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had proposed to construct multi-level parking facilities in different parts of the city.

However, there has been nearly no progress.Apart from the facility at Freedom Park, the BBMP has not taken up the project anywhere else in the city.

Sources said that multi-level parking facilities had been proposed at Gandhi Bazaar in Basavanagudi, Russel Market in Shivajinagar, Malleswaram, near Sukh Sagar in Majestic, near Gandhi statue on Race Course Road and few other places. Feasibility studies were also conducted and the facilities were to be constructed on public-private partnership basis. All the facilities were to be financed under the 13th Finance Commission. However, the BBMP’s Standing Committee for Town Planning rejected many proposed facilities, following which the project was dropped, sources said. While the Directorate of Urban Land Transport has once again proposed the parking facility at Gandhi Bazaar, where it is taking up a remodelling project on pilot basis, Malleswaram market has been handed over to the Bengaluru Development Authority.

Ruling Party Leader M. Shivaraju told The Hindu, Deputy CM and Bengaluru Development Minister G. Parameshwara has directed the officials to submit a proposal to renovate and upgrade the civic body’s parking facilities on J.C. Road and K.G. Road (Maharaja Complex).