Businesses all set to grow in city

Businesses all set to grow in city

Swathi Shivanand

BANGALORE: Bangalore is all set to enhance its status as a crucial economic hub of the country. Piggybacking on Brand Bangalore, the Master Plan 2015, prepared by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), has proposed the development of more independent business areas to accommodate the quantum jump in office spaces that has been projected.

These new business areas would be located in and around existing and proposed transport hubs. “They have been proposed so that economic activity can be spread across the city instead of locating it in the Central Business Area (CBA),” BDA Commissioner M.K. Shankarlinge Gowda told The Hindu.

According to figures in the vision document of the Master Plan, hi-tech office spaces are all set to witness an annual growth of 6 per cent in the CBA, translating to more than eight lakh sq km of office spaces in 2015, up from a mere 45,000 sq km of office spaces as surveyed in 2003. Projections also indicate a five per cent growth in non hi-tech offices in the CBA, a jump from 30,000 sq km of office spaces to more 5.85 lakh sq km of office spaces. Hi-tech offices are non polluting industries such as the IT/ITES offices and non hi-tech offices are garment and automotive industries. Central Business Area consists of the pete areas, such as Chickpet and Cubbonpet, areas around Vidhana Soudha, commercial centres such as K.R. Market and Russell Market, and areas around M.G. Road.

“The CBA captures nearly 58 per cent of the market for offices while the suburbs support 42 per cent,” says the document. Office spaces in suburban areas are also likely to witness an increase from 55,000 sq km in 2003 to more than nine lakh sq km.

This dramatic increase seems to have been presumed as the master plan has allowed the increase of the floor area ratio (FAR) to as much as four, along transport hubs such as the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus stands and proposed Metro and Mono rail systems.

Stating that “the present FAR restrictions have limited growth in the Central Business Area”, the vision document says that allowing for more construction by increasing the FAR would be justified once travel becomes easier.