NO SPACE FOR CYCLES AT GLITZY CITY MALLS

Bicycles are a green alternative and an easy remedy to ease traffic congestion,but most malls dont have dedicated bicycle parking lots.Authorities claim its a waste of space as the demand is not significant

Apart from being eco-friendly,bicycles are one of the best remedies for a trafficcongested city like Bangalore.Cycling is also one of the easiest ways to stay in shape which probably explains why a number of working professionals,especially the techie community,have taken to biking with a passion.And yet,the city is unfriendly to bicycles,a fact best exemplified by the lack of parking space in malls,as avid blogger,Liam Timms found out.

Timms,who recently took to cycling to do his bit for the environment,found much to his chagrin that there was no space at Garuda Mall where he could leave his cycle.

I was told that the basement and the multi-level parking facility are meant only for registered vehicles and not cycles.This despite being willing to pay the parking charge, Timms said.

A mall is a place where a varied demographic of people meet,from young children to seniors.It is the ideal venue to inspire people to take up the cause of going green in their own way,like cycling to the mall rather than using a car.Why not help them

Ironically,the city is a cycle retail hub for international brands.These bikes cost anywhere upwards of 25,000 and in many cases go beyond 1,00,000.Yet,most malls dont have safe and secure parking bays for cycles.

Uday Garudachar,managing director of Garuda Mall on Magrath Road and Swagath Garuda in Jayanagar,candidly admitted that both malls dont have parking space for cycles,but claimed mall authorities were not at fault.

The building bylaws ask us to specify the number of parking spaces for cars per square feet, Garudachar said.It does not even ask for two-wheeler parking.The majority of people who come to malls do not come on cycles.They come in cars with their families.Having said that,cycles can be parked in the space allotted for twowheelers by paying the same rates.

UB City,another top-end mall,also has no designate space to park cycles.We have about 200 parking spaces for our employees and about 15 for the UB Tower where corporates work because they requested it.But we dont even get that many two-wheeler riders to our mall.So we dont have a designated space for cycles at all, says Atul Kumar,COO,City Properties Maintenance Company Limited,who is incharge of maintaining the property.Its a similar case with Orion,near Rajajinagar,one of the citys biggest malls.

We have almost 2,400 slots for cars with multi-level car parking facility and the same number for two-wheelers, said Sunil Munshi,general manager,Orion Mall.We have not had requests for cycle parking.But there is parking provision outside for our staff,which cycle to work.

Even the government,which is attempting to carve out dedicated lanes for cyclists on city roads,hasnt thought through the parking problem.The idea of a dedicated cycling track began with a pilot project in Jayanagar where about 50 kms were marked for cycles.

Besides Jayanagar,we have planned cycling tracks in Madivala,HSR Layout,Koramangala and Indiranagar and have earmarked about 20 crore for the project this year, said Basavaraj Kabade,executive engineer,traffic engineering cell.

But when asked about parking space for cycles,he said,We have earmarked 20 units of parking space each capable of holding 10 cycles. But only four are ready.

Forum Mall and Mantri Square are refreshing exceptions though.Twenty cycling spaces are available at both Forum Value Mall,Whitefield and Forum Mall,Koramangala.

We dont charge for parking cycles and as a part of our environmental initiative,we even have a charging point for electric cars,which is available free for visitors, said Ramanuja,general manager,Forum Malls.

At Mantri Square there are about 130 parking spaces for cycles,including ones meant for staff.These spaces are safe and secure inside the parking.There is no parking charge for cyclists.We get a few people from Malleswaram who do like to cycle into our premises, said Kiran Kumar,senior vice-president,Mantri Group.

N Sathyanarayana,managing director of Central Parking Services,the private enterprise that has designed parking spaces for about 16 malls and even the BMRCL in Bangalore said it is a question of commerce.

There is no demand for cycle parking, he said.To have a dedicated space when there is no demand for it would mean loss of business because footfalls are lost for the lack of adequate parking space in a commercial space like a mall.However in BMRCL,we do have designated cycle racks.