Mall-goers turn into commuters’ nightmare
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, June 27: Ahmedabad is a strictly weekend shopping city.
On Saturdays and Sundays, youngsters and families descend in full force and invade malls and multiplexes of the city. Along with them come their two wheelers and cars, which create major traffic crises in and around shopping malls.
Most shopping complexes and multiplexes make over 60 percent of their business during weekends. “We have a footfall of about 10,000 on weekdays. During weekends, this number rises to over 55,000,” said Deepa Bhatnagar, Manager (Operations) of the Himalaya Mall on Drive-In road.
With such huge numbers of people walking in to shop or watch movies, parking is one of the biggest challenges for mall managers during the weekend.
While most malls deploy extra security and traffic management personnel to direct vehicles into parking spaces on weekends, traffic snarls continue to create jams on the roads in front. Prabhudas Kosti, a hardware shop owner opposite the 10 Acres Mall on Kankaria-Raipur highway, said, “The weekend rush at 10 Acres is so bad that most shopowners in the street opposite shut shop on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Sales dip when the road is blocked by people going into the mall or multiplex.”
This is despite the fact that 10 Acres Mall claims to have the largest parking space in any shopping mall-cum-multiplex in Ahmedabad. “The idea of this mall is to provide maximum convenience to our customers. In our parking lot, we can accommodate up to 1,300 cars and 2,000 two wheelers,” said Indraneel Bannerjee, the manager of 10 Acres Mall.
Naivatsinh S Chauhan, the head traffic constable deputed in the area, agrees with the shopowners, “Despite the huge parking area in the mall, the narrow lane opposite it and the rush on weekends makes traffic unmanageable. Due to congestion at the entry and exit points of the mall, a lot of people do not utilise the parking space in the basement and prefer to park haphazardly on the roads outside.”
A shopowner here aid, “The traffic jam ensures that even tow trucks do not find their way into these narrow lanes.” Though the area on either side of the mall has been marked by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation as ‘no parking zone’, there is a row of auto rickshaws parked there at all times. Mahesh Modi, the developer of Himalaya Mall said, “The mall management makes every effort to make shopping a pleasurable experience for its customers. But, the traffic authorities have to cooperate with us to avoid traffic troubles.”
Source: Indian Express