BBMP must think of Plan B too: Saldanha

BBMP must think of Plan B too: Saldanha
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Even as the BBMP gets cracking on violators of parking norms in residential and commercial complexes, the viability of the move has been contested. Justice M F Saldanha, retired judge of the high court, said the crackdown didn’t make sense because norms were breached with the palike’s knowledge.
While the idea of stricter laws to ensure adequate parking space in buildings — that, in turn, checks parking spillover onto roads — is in the right direction, the move comes without a Plan B, said Justice Saldanha. The BBMP’s decision came in the wake of
rampant commercialization of space allotted for parking in buildings.
“The norms couldn’t have been violated without the knowledge of BBMP officials. Even if the argument is that these violations happened after the building plans were sanctioned, the fact remains that the officials have failed to conduct checks and initiate follow-up action,’’ he said.
Violators manage to get injunctions to stop proceedings against illegal constructions by misleading the court. The question is when the construction itself is illegal, how can the court grant an injunction against action on the violator. There’s no alternative but to check the violation at the building’s planning stage and ensure strict follow-up action, he said.
Parking complexes a must
In a city where roads are increasingly getting converted to crammed-up parking spaces, Justice Saldanha sees the way forward in parking complexes being built on the PPP model. Public parking areas and multi-storeyed parking lots on a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis are an economically viable model that could go a long way in addressing the issue.
For the central business district, the open space between Cubbon Road and M G Road could be tapped for a massive underground parking lot.