Malls to be constructed on Chandigarh Bus Stands

May 3, 2008	(1 votes, average: 1 out of 5)  Loading ...
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Bus stands would be the latest venues for modern multiplexes and glitzy shopping malls in Punjab. Realizing that most bus stands are usually located at prime locations in Chandigarh and other cities in Punjab and would be an attractive proposition for realtors, the Punjab Industrial Development Board (PIDB) has planned multi-storey structures, where the ground-floor would function as bus stand and the levels above would house showrooms, offices, restaurants and cinemas.

Top names of Indian real estate have already submitted their expressions of interest for this project. Bids have been invited for development of bus stands at Mohali, Patiala and Bathinda on PPP model. Applicants include DLF Ltd, Gammon Infrastructure, Nagarjuna Constructions, GMR, Unitech, TDI, India Bulls Real Estate, Parsvanath and Omaxe. Bids have also come from far off places like PD Aggarwal Infrastructure Limited (Indore), Akruti City, Oberoi (Mumbai), IDEB (Bangalore) and Bengal Silver Spring (Kolkata).

The name of developer will be finalized by June and construction will be completed in two years. Dr SS Sandhu, Managing Director, PIDB, said, “There should not be any apprehensions about co-existence of a bus stand and a shopping area. If you look at the plan of the project, these are big complexes. There will be separate entries for bus stand and shopping area. People in the mall will not even realize that they are in a bus stand.” Giving the example of Singapore, Dr Sandhu said, “There, the bus stand operates from the basement. Ideally, we would also want the buses to come to the basement, but as of now there are some issues involving ventilations and lightning, so in the first phase we will not go for basement development.”

The bus stand will be fully air-conditioned, have a 100 per cent power back-up and run by the developer for 40 years, who will earn from rentals of shopping mall and bus stand fees. The government plans to develop the new bus stand on the outskirts of the city, primarily to avoid congestion. A case in point is the bus stand in Tel Aviv, Israel. Developed with latest technology in 1990s it was considered world’s largest and most advanced bus stand. However, it proved to be a big failure as its presence in the mid of a residential area caused a lot of congestion. The three bus stands being developed under this plan in the first phase include a green field project in Mohali on a six-acre plot opposite the Verka milk plant, a new bus stand on a 14-acre plot in Rajpura road in Patiala and refurbishing of the existing bus stand at Bathinda.

Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, said, “These are prime locations. We feel that most of our bus stands have been not fully utilized. A bit of imagination and planning can create a win-win situation for the commuters, who can have a modern bus stand, and the government, which can reap big gains.”

News Published Under:   Chandigarh |

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