The newly redeveloped flower market at Gandhi Bazar in Bengaluru will have 50 shops in the basement and ground floor for vendors who had been vending at the market earlier. Four floors above will act as a parking lot and can accommodate 124 cars.
| Photo Credit: File photo
The much-delayed redevelopment of old flower markets at Gandhi Bazaar and Malleswaram in Bengaluru has been completed, and both will be inaugurated in the next two months. With this, the parking crisis in both commercial hubs is expected to ease as the new redeveloped markets have Multi Level Car Parking (MLCP) facilities along with shops for vendors.
“Work on the Gandhi Bazaar market and MLCP is over and it will be inaugurated soon,” said Uday Garudachar, MLA, Chickpet. “We have asked Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister D. K. Shivakumar for a suitable time for the inauguration,” he said.
Work on the ₹22 crore project began in October 2023, and was expected to be completed by 2024, but got delayed.
The newly redeveloped market will have 50 shops in the basement and ground floor for vendors who had been vending at the market earlier. Four floors above will act as a parking lot and can accommodate 124 cars.
The much-delayed work on redevelopment of the Malleswaram Flower Market, which has been in the works for nearly a decade, is also nearing completion. The project was taken up by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). It will accommodate 188 vendors, who had been vending in the market earlier, on the ground floor, with a shopping complex above. While the basement can hold 323 cars, a MLCP constructed on the market premises can accommodate another 280 cars, adding to a total capacity of 603 cars.
Efficacy of MLCPs
While the two MLCPs in traditional market hubs of Bengaluru, where parking is a crisis, is a welcome addition, a question mark remains over their efficacy.
For instance, the MLCP at Freedom Park, opened in June 2024, has failed to take off despite being located in the heart of the bustling Pete-Majestic area where parking is an ordeal. The facility can accommodate 556 cars and 445 two-wheelers, but its occupancy rate is found wanting.
“Traffic police need to enforce no parking around MLCPs for them to work to its optimum capacity. When there is no enforcement, why will commuters pay to park their cars, and walk for shopping in the area?” said a senior civic official. He said erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had written to Bengaluru Traffic Police seeking a complete ban on on-road parking on 35 streets around Freedom Park. “But there has been no enforcement,” he lamented.
A senior traffic police official said that a ban on towing of vehicles had hampered their capacity to enforce no parking on such zones. “Commuter behaviour doesn’t seem to change with issuing challans online. We need to tow vehicles in such zones to enforce no parking,” the officer said.
At a recent review meeting, Karthik Reddy, Joint Commissioner (Traffic), Bengaluru, said that it was decided to allow on-road parking on some stretches in the Gandhinagar area, and strictly enforce no parking around Freedom Park.
Published – November 20, 2025 01:21 pm IST
