TRAFFIC DECONGESTION PLAN

MANTRI SQUARE MALL, MALLESHWARAM

This document provides a traffic re-routing plan so the congestion around the mantri square mall
may be minimized. This plan has both short term & long term suggestions.

Prepared by
OVERVIEW TREES INCREASE
BBMP is attempting to solve the traffic problems that plague Sampige REVENUES
road near Mantri Square mall, by cutting down 36 huge, old trees &
widening the road in front of the mall till the junction of mill corner road Customers traveled longer, farther,
from the current 45 feet to 60 feet, including reduction of sidewalk and more often to tree-enhanced
space in the region.
shopping districts. They stayed
Work orders have been issued to begin this demolition & widening longer, and were willing to pay
without any public consultation with the citizens of Malleshwaram who
more for both products and
will be affected by this move.
parking.
The outcome of the work resulting from this destruction has not been
described, quantified or even thought through in a logical manner. The
Participants rated "Amenity and
ill effects of the destruction in the area far outweigh the benefits that it
is seen to accrue. Comfort" of tree-lined sidewalks

about 80% higher compared to

This document seeks to identify the reasons for congestion, suggest
less destructive alternatives both short term & long term by engineering non-shaded streets. Also, "Quality
the smooth flow of traffic in the area. of Product" ratings were 30%

The mall itself is1.7 million sq ft in area & has provision for 2000 cars. It higher in districts having trees, and
has over 250 outlets, 6 screen multiplex, Bangalore’s largest food court customer service was considered
with 1000 seats. All of this traffic is served by a mere 40 feet road on
better on these streets.
one side of the mall.

Merchants also showed a general

preference for trees, but they

consistently underestimated the

effect of trees on customer

behavior and buying decisions.

Source: streetswiki.wikispaces.com
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THE CURRENT SITUATION
The below flow indicates the traffic flow around the mall (white area marked as point A). Green arrows
indicate traffic coming into the area, Blue arrows are traffic going away from it.

One can notice from the above diagram

1. Of the 4 sides all traffic use only the

east side of the mall.
2. There is only 1 entry & exit to the mall
accepting & discharging all the traffic
3. Traffic from all directions have to use
Nagappa road & Platform road only to enter &
exit on Sampige road only

The above traffic scheme causes the 3

congestions numbered on the image on the
right. The red arrows indicate the direction in
which traffic gets backed up from the choke
points
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BBMP PROPOSED SOLUTION
Widen the road in front from 45 feet to 60 feet for a stretch of 250
meters…… yeah! That’s it!!! The small green stretch that doesn’t
even address one of the 3 congestion point leave alone address the
other 2 properly

That’s the traffic dispersal strategy, that’s the traffic reduction

strategy, in short, that’s the magic bullet proposed. Clearly this is not
the answer

In international experience a mall which discharges around

3000 cars per hour should have 4 exits. Ideally in different
directions.

PROPOSED ALTERNATE DECONGESTION PLAN

Short term
Following diagram illustrates a short term routing measure to decongest the trouble spots identified.

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Mall traffic should to be made to take lane 3 to the left of the bus stop island and has a signal (red
circles) shared with the north bound traffic from platform rd. Till the signals are installed the traffic police
can man the flow over the weekends.

Lane 2 is bus stop and holds a constant stream of buses which interrupt the cross over of traffic into the
mall from lane 1 now so it is important to get mall traffic away from lane 1.

Lanes 1 & 2 are straight thru traffic and need to go uninterrupted.

Lane 3 is possible only if traffic arrives from link road and is segregated properly ahead of time. Else at
last minute, people will be on the wrong side and cause chaos to 1 & 2 traffic.

Lane 4 is the city station traffic.

1,2 & 4 are free flowing without signals. It may be better to physically barricade lanes 1 & 2 upto mill
corner junction so that there is no cutting across to the mall from people arriving on lane 1 by mistake
and people stay put in lane 3.

Right now the sirur park rd exit is very close to lane 1 & the traffic island so people going to lane 4 & 3
have to push their way bringing traffic to complete halt.So Sirur park road exit to Nagappa road must be
closed. Vehicles already on sirur park rd should take 2 main & join link road.

Long term
1. Mitigation strategy: Over the long run if an underpass is built at the mall entrance to sirur park
road, mall bound traffic can take lane 1 on nagappa road, turn right on to sirur park and left at
the dedicated road into the mall. This will free up Lane 3 in which case the mall management
may want to build entrance for their new buildings in such a way that they can put another
box/overpass for Lane 3 directly into their new complex parking, leaving the traffic around to
continue uninterrupted
2. Dispersal strategy: Measure the number PCU’s entering & leaving the mall during peak hours
and the directions they are headed & make more entrances & exits to disperse the traffic in
different directions.
3. Reduction strategy: Provide parking slot availability information in the form of LED display
boards at link road nagappa road intersection to indicate parking availability. This will prevent
cars coming all the way to the mall to find out there is no parking space. Parking slot availability
information should also be provided via SMS & web.
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