Parking chaos on Bangalore’s Brigade Road

Parking chaos on Bangalore’s Brigade Road

Chitra V. Ramani and Raghava M.
Notice on the automated parking meters on the road says they are not working ‘today’ as they are being upgraded
The BBMP and the BSEA shared revenue during the five-year contract which ended on June 21

‘The civic authority will call for tenders to operate parking, BSEA is free to participate in it’

Bangalore: Parking on Brigade Road has now become free with the expiry of the contract between the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Brigade’s Shops and Establishments’ Association (BSEA).

This has also given freedom to the shoppers to park their cars for hours on end without any restriction unlike before when they could park for just a few hours at a stretch. Though this has affected the movement of vehicles, neither the City Traffic Police nor the BBMP is ready to prohibit parking here.

Meanwhile, all the parking meters on the road, which were imported and functional until recently, now carry a notice (dated June 22) put up by the association that reads: “Parking meters will not be working today due to upgradation work. Inconvenience is regretted.”

Suhail Yusuf, president of BSEA, claimed that the association had written to the BBMP on June 19 but had not got any reply till date. “We created an automated parking model for the first time in the country. Our contract with the civic authority was for a period of five years and the revenue generated was shared equally.”

He said that in five years the BBMP had earned revenue of over a crore. “The association used its share to maintain the footpath, lighting on the road and employed security to man the imported parking machines.”

Mr. Yusuf ruled out the possibility of the association encouraging shoppers to park in Garuda Mall, which has a dedicated parking space. “Garuda Mall does not have enough parking for its own visitors. There will be no parking space available for the Brigade Road shoppers,” he said.

S. Puttaswamy, BBMP’s Additional Commissioner (East), maintained that the civic authority would call for tender to operate parking on Brigade Road in which the BSEA can also participate along with the others.

“The agreement with regard to metered parking with the BSEA was initially for a period of two years that could be extended to five years. The agreement ended in 2007 and had not been renewed,” he said.

Praveen Sood, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security), told The Hindu that there were no proposals to ban parking on the busy Brigade Road.

“There is no multi-level parking facility or a dedicated parking space nearby. If such an alternative was available, parking could have been banned on the stretch,” he added.