BENGALURU: Five floors, more than 200 shop floors, lifts and a fire-safety design – Jayanagar’s new shopping complex completed three years ago is impressive. Yet, it lies abandoned. In a stark contrast, the older complex – which caught fire a decade ago and lost nearly 100 shops – is packed.About 170 shops still function from the older, congested building that reminds one of a tinderbox. Constructed in 1974, it sees 50,000 shoppers on weekdays and nearly a lakh, on holidays.
Mukund Rao, member of the Jayanagar Citizens’ Forum, said that the older complex should have been brought down after the fire accident or renovated. “Five CMs have come and gone, but the new complex has not been opened for use,” he said, adding, “After the fire, the then CM B S Yeddyurappa proposed a new complex, D V Sadananda Gowda visited the place and the later CM Jagadish Shettar laid the foundation stone. Siddaramiah too has visited the place to check its progress. Now, the construction has been completed, but it remains locked.” In 2017, Lokayukta had directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to issue notices to occupants of the old market to move to the newer facility. But nothing has moved in that front.
City corporation officials said that the project is caught between two civic agencies. BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad said that it was meant to be a joint venture -- BBMP would give the land and Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) would construct four blocks of the complex. “It’s a project of more than `200 crore,” he said. BDA constructed one block and wanted to hand over the rest of the construction to BBMP. Prasad said, “When we had given this project to BDA, it was approved by the BBMP Council. Now if we have to to take it back, the proposal has to be cleared by the council again,’’ he said.
Vendors too are not looking forward to moving in to the glass complex. Ganesh, who owns a vegetable shop, had lost vegetables worth `35,000 in the fire but he does not want to move. “It is poorly designed, lanes between shops are narrow and it is congested. We will lose customers there,’’ he said. Mahesh, a shop owner, said that the loss in the fire ran into crores but the Palike gave them a pittance as compensation. “Most of us have been here for many decades and the space we have here is good, which sees good business. But, this market has not been renovated after the fire... we are sitting on bomb that can go off any time,” he said.
‘DO FIRE SAFETY AUDIT’
BBMP wants a fire-safety audit to be completed first. “We have given instruction to all heads of departments and markets to conduct a fire audit and get a Fire Safety Certificate from the Fire Department,’’ said Mayor Sampath Raj.”Since the building was constructed a while back and has been lying vacant, we need to clean up the premises. We have sought time from Deputy CM G Parameshwara who is also the Bengaluru Development Minister. Once the vendors shift, we will demolish the older building and construct a new one that follows fire-safety norms,’’ he added.
KR MARKET
City’s oldest market, Krishnaraja Market, too has similar story. Syed Ameeruddin, who owns a shop that sells party decoration, said that they lost good in a fire four years ago. BBMP gave them a compensation of `20,000, “a pittance,” said Syed. The basement of KR Market has no ventilation and all the four entry/exit points have been encroached on, making quick escape during emergency nearly impossible. Another shop owner Suhail said that the fire-extinguisher kept nearby was way past its expiry date.