Mall Culture In Cities

City outskirts are sprouting m boths. entrust they help decongest Bangalore? Mall culture is here to stay and new malls approaching up on the urban center outskirts seem to be offering a ray of hope to the jam-packed city centre. Hopefully, these testament cater to the lifestyle necessarily of citizenry living beyond the Outer Ring Road. But exit it be a boon? Expert opinion has it that if patternned and execute properly, malls can keep people from travelling into the city for their leisure. This testament squinch traffic within the city, many feel.According to town planner Swati Ramanathan, It is a particular that we do need more malls. The purchasing power of people has change magnitude and malls do provide people with several options. But they pee-pee to be strategically positioned and they cant afford to have poor facilities just because they are on the outskirts. Says traffic expert MN Sreehari, Malls in the outskirts will definitely flip relief to clogged streets in the city.He believes that Bangalore as a city require and can house around 70 malls. The correct balance is one mall for one lakh people. This is how it has been done in the west, he says. But architect Kevin Ross says, When people chuck up structures like malls, theatres and restaurants in the outskirts, they normally cut corners. They wouldnt try it within the city because market needs demand the next structure is better than existing one. If the malls coming up in the outskirts are not upto the mark, they will fall flat and reveal to attract crowds.You will still have people coming all the way from Yelahanka and Hebbal and going to Koramangala for a mall experience. Theres the case of a city multiplex that giveed with a lot of promise in the outskirts, only if once other multiplexes opened up in the city centre, people didnt mind travelling the distance for a more swanky experience.Swati cautions, We cant have the market dictate where and how the malls should be. G all overnment agencies need to be activated to relish into permits for these malls. Otherwise well be Gurgaoned.Every third building is a mall in Gurgaon. This will result in ghost malls. One mall will attract everybody and Well have the same problems of congestion and road blocks all over again.She feels that it is the government agencies which need to look into the density of population in conglomerate areas and allow for malls to come up in the right zones. Says Ramesh Reddy, whos invested in a mall, Colleges, IT companies and even hospitals have gone to the outskirts. I feel if malls are put up just outside residential areas, they will have takers.Leena M, a young professional, says, We need to follow the Mumbai model. The city is spread out and for each one suburb has its own mall nucleus. But for this to happen in Bangalore, it will take some time, she says.Swathi adds that town planners need to have the foresight to plan for this sort of growth. It needs minute planning. In o ur governance, forget about detailed planning, theres no planning at all, she says.Sreehari believes that malls need to operate for at to the lowest degree 20 hours a day. He adds that in cities like Singapore, malls are open 24 hours. This has to happen eventually for malls to be really successful.