Pramesh S Jain & Yogesh K Porwar
P
heonix Mall of Asia,which was recently at the centre of Kannada name board controversy, continues to be in limelight for the wrong reasons.
City Police Commissioner,B.Dayananda,who is also an executive magistrate,has ordered on Saturday,the shut down of the Mall’s operations for a fortnight, anticipating law and order issues,and traffic disruptions,due to the New Year and other holidays.
Mr.Dayananda said that larger crowds are expected for the New Year celebration, and weekend of Makara Sankranti on Januaury 14,which will aggravate the already existing traffic woes and public distrurbances.
Mr Dayananda has also requested the BBMP to withdraw/cancel the partial occupancy certificate to the Phoenix Mall of Asia.
The Phoenix Mall of Asia, which is one of the biggest malls in the city, had to shut down on 27th December too, following Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) protest demanding Kannada signboards.
The order by Mr.Dayananda,restricting public access to the mall,was in response to three reports submitted by the Joint Commissioner of Police,Traffic,and Deputy Commissioner of Police,North East Division,and the City Special Branch.
The reports stated several inconveniences and disturbances to public due to the mall.
Mr.Dayananda analyzed these reports,inspected the area and came up with the following observations:
The mall is adjacent to the service road of Bellary Highway which connects to the International Airport and two major hospitals and many office spaces.
The highway acts as a lifeline to North Bangalore.
– As per partial occupancy certificate issued by BBMP, the mall is a 12-storeyed building,but has only two basement parking spaces, which are inadequate.
Thus, the visitors end up parking on the service road, and there is a pile up on the main road, leading to traffic congestion.
– Public transport and residents of the area are facing inconvenience daily due to traffic disruptions.
– VIP movement and ambulance movement is also a matter of concern in this area due to slow moving traffic.
– Exhaust blowers of the mall are causing high decibel level noise and there have been many complaints by residents around the area.
According to Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, the noise level is much higher than the prescribed levels.
– Citing the report by the Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic,Mr.Dayananda said that on 24th and 25th December,the mall had thousands of visitors.
As there is shortage of parking space,around 2,000 cars and 10,000 two-wheelers were parked haphazardly in the surrounding areas and on the roads outside the mall,blocking traffic for many hours.This caused outrage on social media.
– Apart from this, there is disruption of public peace and order every day.
– Mr.Dayananda,in his order,reiterated that “if the matter is left unattended,there will be uproar and frequent disputes,and significant chances of cognizable offences in the near future.
It is essential to restrict the access of public to the mall to prevent obstruction of traffic congestion,caused by lack of space for parking.”
