BDA to set up 4 mkt complexes

Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) plans to to build four big market complexes at Jayanagar Market, Malleswaram, Seshadripuram and KR Puram Santhe Maidana, reports suggest.

However, some critics raise doubts about the ability of the authority to manage shopping complexes. It is learnt that there are 774 shops and office spaces in BDA's 15 commercial complexes in the city. There are some tenants who have not paid rents for seven consecutive years now, reports suggest.

It is further learnt that the authority is yet to recover rental dues worth Rs 15.25 crore from shops and office spaces it leased out in its 15 shopping complexes in the city.

Earlier, in a letter to the state government, former BDA Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena painted the sorry state of the agency's financial affairs. The letter urges the government to have the BBMP pay up BDA Rs 499 crore spent by the authority for various civic projects.

The letter apparently says the BDA had repaid Rs 25 crore with interest for repaying the Rs 17.8 crore loan it had raised from the French government. The loan was secured for a metropolitan spatial data project.

Disclosing that BDA has decided to raise Rs 3,000 crore as loan from various sources to complete its projects, the letter states that the BDA's revenue inflows are diminishing.

Some critics argue that the authority's plan to re-model the markets into mall like structures would only push up the rentals and make it impossible for existing vendors to afford the new commercial spaces.