BMP Meet: Utility building rent, pay-n-park issues on ice

BMP Meet: Utility building rent, pay-n-park issues on ice
Deccan Herald

The outgoing Bangalore Mahanagara Palike council, at its last meeting on Monday, deferred decisions on some prominent issues while approving a host of works mostly related to roads.

The outgoing Bangalore Mahanagara Palike council, at its last meeting on Monday, deferred decisions on some prominent issues while approving a host of works mostly related to roads.

As the present council’s term expires in late November, it put on hold a decision on hiking the rent for the Public Utility Building Complex (Shubhash Chandra Bose Complex) on M G Road.

The rent in this 24-storey, heart-of-the-City complex is now Rs 7 per sq ft, accounting for Rs 104.16 lakh in annual revenue for the BMP. (It is quite another matter that it needs a host of repairs -- sanitary lines and structural maintenance --- which will drain an estimated Rs 200 lakh from the BMP kitty).


Of the total 112 shop spaces in the building, units on the ground and first floors are rented out to banks, cinema halls, textile and artifacts stores while those above and up to the 23 floor, houses various government departments. Commercial complexes in this area command a rent of anywhere between Rs 40 and 60. In 1997 itself, the BMP had assessed that there was scope for increasing the PUB rent by 25 per cent every three years.

Only recently, the BMP’s Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance had decided that it may be raised 15 per cent.

A decision was also put off on incorporating the 3,456-sq-ft leftover space adjacent to the Garuda Mall on Magrath Road into the joint venture project already on between the BMP and Maverick Holdings.

The council did not discuss reintroduction of “pay and park” scheme though the matter was broached by a ruling Congress member.

Approvals

The BMP’s final sitting allowed a private party to divert a rajakaluve (main canal) and merge two vacant sites divided by it, off Residency Road, despite the BJP’s objections. The canal is reportedly linked to the Koramangala Valley.

The approval was based on the private party’s assurance that it would take the responsibility to suitably divert the rajakaluve.

The two sites are reportedly owned by the same party. The BJP argued against the approval as it would set a “wrong precedent”, leading to developers putting undue pressure on the BMP.

The BMP also okayed as many as 28 different packages related to road asphalting or concrete roads.