CMH Road: A bumpy road ahead

CMH Road: A bumpy road ahead


Shatarupa ChaudhuriFirst Published : 14 Jul 2009 08:12:16 AM ISTLast Updated : 14 Jul 2009 08:52:20 AM IST
BANGALORE: From apartments to appliance shops, this road has everything lined up, and, cutting through Indiranagar, it is a world by itself. More so, because its escalating problems are unique to itself in the whole of Indiranagar. It all started around June 2008, when BMRCL brought the Namma Metro project to the Chinmaya Mission Hospital, or more popularly, the CMH Road. The once wide road, where many traders had thriving business, was in for a shake-up. If you enter the road from Old Madras Road, the first few kilometres are quite a pleasant drive. The Chinmaya Mission Hospital building stands all white and impressive on the left. A walk down this tree-lined stretch of the road can also be refreshing.
Vineeta, a college-goer and resident of Indiranagar, says, “I come this side of the road in the evenings with friends often.” Then she comes up with her real reason for it, “In the meanwhile, I can pop into FabIndia and a few other boutiques that are here.” The CMH Road FabIndia has all the variety of products that this chain offers -- apparels, furnishings and furniture, shoes, cosmetics and edible products. There are boutique cafes and other exclusive stores on this side of the road, with a quieter demeanour.
But once you look beyond the 100 Feet Road crossing, which is marked by the huge KFC outlet, the picture changes. CMH Road become the commercial hub of Indiranagar, with people, vehicles, shops and houses jostling for space. It was fine that way, until the road got dug up for metro work, with only strips of space left for vehicular movement on either side, and that too for a very bumpy ride. “This work has been a huge problem for us, and I hope we survive till the time this work completes. This used to be such a popular place with shoppers and business used to be so good. But now we sit here all day with barely any people passing by,” said Babu, who owns a shoe shop on CMH Road. “The people who had rented shops here have mostly left, only the ones who own shops here still remain,” he added ruefully.
In fact, the BMRCL was involved in a litigation against the Traders’ Association of CMH Road as traders felt that their business will be severely hit by the metro construction work. There more than 2,000 shops housed on the road -- anything from hardware stores to showrooms like Titan, eateries, banks (around 45 of them) and even animation institutes, one of which is Frameboxx. The only hitch is that you have to virtually hitchhike to reach them now.
People living on or around CMH Road are having a tough time. “It is a headache reaching office and coming back home. When I had first rented a flat here, people used to say I live in a great locality. But now trhe road is a nightmare,” says Roshni Dasgupta, a resident.
But rents have slipped a little. A study by magicbricks.com shows that rents in this area peaked during mid last year but has slumped since, which may give an indicator to how the metro work has affected real estate also. One can just hope that BMRCL keeps the metro deadline and that things start looking up after that!