BENGALURU: Vendors of Jayanagar shopping complex are making money by illegally subletting the shops allotted to them in the basement area. When The New Indian Express reporter went in the guise of a vendor looking for a shop to rent in the complex, a few vendors initially said that there were no shops available for rent.
However, one of the vendors present there was quick to offer a shop in the basement area. “Rent will be Rs 30,000 per month and Rs 3.5 lakh advance will have to be paid for a 10x10 feet shop,’’ he said. When the reporter confronted him with the actual rent decided by the BBMP for shops in the shopping complex, he said: “It is not easy to get shops directly from the BBMP. This is a prime location. Other vendors are offering shops at much higher rates.”
Some of the vendors on footpath too alleged that shop mafia was active there. “The illegal business was thriving in the old shopping complex as well. But since it was dark inside, rents were less. The new complex is more like a mall and hence the shops are being offered at exorbitant rates. Some of the vendors are offering the shops for even Rs 40,000 per month rent and Rs 4 lakh advance,’’ a vendor added.
The newly constructed building has close to 200 shops. Though the new building has better facilities like lift, CCTV camera and clean corridor, vendors who moved from the old complex have been told to pay according to the old building rent only. Rent of the shops in the new complex varies from
Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000, depending on their sizes.