The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has spent ₹78 crore on the multi-level parking facility at Freedom Park with the aim of easing congestion in the central business district area. While it will be completed by March-end, its opening is likely to be pushed back by another couple of months. The reason: there appears to be no takers for the operation and management of the facility.
The civic body has floated the operation and management tender three times, but received no response. Senior civic officials told The Hindu that this was recently discussed at a high-level meeting. Given the lack of response, it was decided to lease the facility for three months, and keep all the revenue generated during this period as a base. This will then help the civic body revise the conditions of the tender.
M. Lokesh, BBMP’s chief engineer (Projects), told The Hindu that they had studied all the parking models, including that of Forum mall, Garuda Mall, Maharaja Shopping Complex, and on-street paid parking system that has been implemented already on a few roads in the city. “We then used the calculations prescribed by the Public Works Department to arrive at the base price that would be most financially viable for the BBMP,” he said.
With the tender receiving no takers, however, the civic body is now proposing the leasing of the facility for three months.
Mr. Lokesh pointed out that all the civil work at the facility had been completed. The solar panels were being installed and some roofing work was ongoing. “All ongoing works will be completed by the end of March,” he said.
With the installation of solar panels, the facility will be run entirely on the power generated by it. “Around 500 kW will be generated. While the parking facility will require 400 kW, the remaining 100 kW will be fed into the power grid,” the chief engineer said.
The multi-level parking facility will be able to accommodate 550 four-wheelers and 450 two-wheelers. Though the work order for the facility was issued in 2015, construction began on the ground only in 2017. However, rocky underground derailed the project for two years. The pandemic delayed the project even further, said civic officials.
Mr. Lokesh said that once the parking facility is operational, on-street parking on around six roads in the vicinity would be banned. “The traffic police have already given in-principal approval of the same. This will ease congestion in the central business district to a large extent,” he said.
