Explosion of Malls in Whitefield and Mahadevapura area

Whitefield and Mahadevapura are two localities in the eastern side of Bangalore. We live in Hoodi which is in between Mahadevapura and Whitefield. These places are famous for one of the largest concentration of IT companies in Bangalore. These companies are located in ITPL (now called ITPB: International Tech Park Bangalore), EPIP (Export Promotion Industrial Parks), Sigma Tech Park, HP's Campus, EMC Corporation's campus etc. Several lakhs (hundreds of thousands) of people work in these IT companies located in Whitefield and Mahadevapura.

I first went to ITPL in October 2002. At that time, these places were considered outside of Bangalore City limit. At that time, we considered Marathahalli in one side and Indira Nagar in the other side (at most extended to CV Raman Nagar) as the end of the city. ITPL was in the middle of nowhere! At that time, it was not even in my wildest dreams that one day I would start living in those areas.

In five years time, so much have changed in and around ITPL. ITPL became the symbol of this area. People started calling this place as ITPL. It reminds me of those days in 1990s when  Colgate and Surf became synonymous to toothpaste and detergents. The city expanded much beyond Marathahalli and Indira Nagar/C V Raman Nagar. We bought an apartment in late 2008 in Hoodi and moved there in early 2009.


When we moved there, there were only two small malls - Cosmos Mall at Brookefield and Big Bazaar near ITPL. Not sure if I can call Big Bazaar as a mall. Nowadays I consider Big Bazaar as a poor cousin of the new trendy malls. Perhaps it was ok to call Big Bazaar as a mall in 2007 or 2008. Both Cosmos Mall and Big Bazaar were owned by Future Group. There was no multiplexes. We had to go to the crammed Garuda Mall in Magrath Road or Forum Mall in Koramangala for a cinema.

Things have again changed so much in next three or four years from 2008. As I write this post, there are total 7 malls in Whitefield and Mahadevapura. There are 4 more upcoming malls. Then there are 2 more malls in the vicinity. I think this area has the largest concentration of malls in Bangalore.

1. Forum Value Mall: Located in Whitefield, its USP is that it has all Factory Stores. Ample Parking space. Fame cinemas multiplex.Food court, McDonald, KFC, MTR, Toscano, Rajdhani restaurants etc.  Rs 20 parking fees (non-refundable) for 3 hours.
2. Phoenix Market City: One of the newest mall that opened in late 2011. Huge mall, one of the biggest in Bangalore. Located in Mahadevapura on ITPL Road. Many Reliance stores - Digital, Time-Out, Trends, Footprints etc. Many brands from value range (Maxx) to high-end stores. PVR coming here.  Parking fees Rs 20 (non-refundable) every two hours!
3. Hyper City: Located at Kundalahalli. Very good grocery, vegetable, non-veg market. Parking fees Rs 20 (non-refundable  from last two weeks)
4.  Park-Square Mall: Located at ITPL (yes, at ITPL, facing the road). The latest mall to open here. Opened in December 2011. Huge Reliance Mart store. Big Reliance Trends too. Multiplexes coming soon. Stiff Parking charge of Rs 30 for two hours.
5. Cosmos Mall: One of the older malls. I visit there for Pantaloon, Liliput, Chef Bakers and Modhuloka. Parking is 15 (refundable).
6. More Mega Mart: Located in Outer Ring Road Mahadevapura.Cheapest place to buy groceries, vegetables. fruits, chicken etc. Modhuloka too is there. No parking fee. Because of the new flyover that came up, the entry through the service road is a bit chaotic.
7. Big Bazaar: Located very near to ITPL. Parking is difficult. Visited only two times in last 3 years.

Upcoming Malls

1. Forum Mall: Coming up inside Prestige Shantiniketan near Hoodi
2. Inorbit Mall:  Located near Sathya Saya Baba Hospital and SJR Tech Park in EPIP area, behind ITPL (Inorbit Hyderbad is the largest mall in South India as per the company website. I've seen the H'bad mall and it is really huge)
3. Total Mall opposite to Forum Value Mall: Somehow I don't like the Total Malls. All very crammed.
4. VR Mall: Just next to Phoenix Market City. (I may be wrong in the name)

Malls in the vicinity

1. Total Mall in the Outer Ring Road opposite EMC office.
2. Gopalan Signature Mall: Will open in Benniganahalli, Old Madras Road, just across my office. Some of  the major attractions here are going to be Spar, Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle . (Other Shoppers Stop, LifeStyle and Spar are in Koramangala or near MG Road).

You may ask: do you really buy in malls? Yes, we do buy at malls. We buy monthly grocery, weekly non-veg (fish, chicken and sometime mutton), cloths, baby care, shoes - all in malls. Here also, the perception of malls have changed a lot in last decade. First time I saw a mall in my life  named (Rave3) was way back in 2001 in Kanpur.  (I watched Mansoon Wedding with some of my friends from IIT Kanpur in the multiplex there). I now think it was a small mall (perhaps smaller than Cosmos Mall); but at that time, it was big enough for me. But the mall that caught me awestruck was the Centrestage mall in Noida which I visited in 2004. It was really a big mall at that time. At those times, malls were a place only to hang around - watch movie, eat at McDonalds, KFCs and sometime accompany your girl-friend or spouse; but not a shopping destination as things were considered expensive in malls. The stores at malls didn't give any sale or any discounts. So we used to go to Commercial Street in Bangalore or Sector-18 market, Sunehri Market, Indira Market etc in Noida or Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Market, Chandni Chowk market etc in Delhi. The perception as Malls as expensive place to buy has changed later. The stores at Malls have started giving large discounts. Then we realized that malls have become a one-stop-solution for many of our needs. There is ample parking space (unlike traditional places like Commercial Streets) in the malls. When your wife purchases her cloths or shoes, you can buy groceries or vegetables of non-veg or buy liquour at MRP (e.g., Madhuloka stores). Your kid can play with various toys. After all these shoppings, you can have a lunch or dinner in a food-court at value prices or you can go to a restaurant too (which may be a bit expensive compared to the food-court).

These malls have have generated lots of jobs and many thousands of people are employed here. But at the same time, some people say that it may affect the livelihood of small shop owners. I'm not sure about this.

Now we don't go to Commercial Street or Marathahalli to buy clothes or shoes. We don't go to HAL market to buy fish or vegetables. We just go to these malls. Happy shopping :-)

319CT on January 30th

I didn't take the Volvo this morning. I have to go some place from work. So I drove to office.

I saw two 319CT Volvo bus going to Whitefield from Majestic. The first one, to my surprise, was numbered 335E (which usually takes a different route through) Old Airport Road. I saw this one near K.R.Puram. Then again, I saw one319CT near Old Madras Road Big Bazaar. The first one was almost half-occupied. But the second one was fully occupied. I saw some people standing too in the bus. Happy to see people using this.

I'll monitor the timing of the bus in the evening for a few days. Once I'm sure of its time, then I will start using it. I hate to wait a long time at the bus station.

If you want to know the timing of 319CT, see one of my old posts.

My first day's experience with 319CT Volvo bus

I decided to try out the new Volvo 319CT bus on Friday (27th January). Friday is a good day to start this kind of an experiment; and I won't prefer the same experiment on a Monday.

While going to office, I wanted to catch the first bus that leaves Whitefield station at 8:35AM. I expected the bus to reach Hoodi by 8:45AM. I waited at the Hoodi bus stop from 8:35AM. I carry three bags to office - my laptop bag, lunch box and gym bag (I work out at the Gold Gym in RMZ Infinity). While waiting at Hoodi bus stop, I was wondering what if a fully loaded bus comes and how would it be to go there with these three bags.

The bus came sharp in time: at 8:45AM. Two persons, including me, got into the bus at Hoodi. There were four passengers including the two of us who just got into! The other person who caught the bus at Hoodi is Padmanabha Reddy who lives in Golden Star Apartment. He works in TCS at its Majestic office.

The fare to Benniganahalli (where my office is located) is Rs 25/-. I was earlier thinking of a buying a monthly BMTC pass. Someone told me that it costs Rs 1500. When I came to know that the fare to my office is Rs 25/-, then I knew that I won't require the monthly pass. Daily I would need Rs 50/-. Considering the fact that there are about 20 working days, so monthly fare will be Rs 1000. I was happy. I spend more than Rs 3000/- worth petrol every month in my car.

The bus reached K.R. Puram very soon. There were lots of passengers waiting for bus; but hardly one or two passengers got into the Volvo. Same scenario at Tin Factory. So many passengers waiting there; but only five persons got into our bus. It is quite contrary to 335E or 500C routes where most people just wait for the Volvo. I was wondering if this 319C would be commercially viable and if not, BMTC may stop it!

While I was tweeting and updating my Facebook status about the bus journey, the bus reached Benniganahalli at 9:05AM. I enjoyed this journey. But I was a bit apprehensive about the return journey.

For the return journey, I reached Benniganahalli bus stop at 5:30PM. I was expecting the bus that leaves Majestic at 4:50PM to reach RMZ Infinity at around 5:45PM. I waited till about 6PM; but the bus didn't come. Then I asked a person waiting at the bus stop about the Volvo. (He works in HP and belongs to a town in Andhra which is about 120km from Bangalore. He is waiting for a bus to go to his home-town.) He told me that I missed the bus by a few minutes. The bus left at around 5:25PM! Since I already waited for 30 minutes, I thought that I could catch the next bus which should come in 45 minutes duration from the previous one.

I was wondering if there is GPS system in the Volvo bus. I could then just send an SMS and find out the location of the bus. (We do it for my son's school bus)

There were lots of non-AC BMTC buses (blue-colored ordinary buses and brown colored Pushpak buses) going to Whitefield as I was waiting for the Volvo bus . The ordinary blue colored buses were full of passengers. The pushpak buses looked good. I was thinking of getting into one of these. But then I thought that since I'm doing an experiment, why not wait for the Volvo.

But the 319CT Volvo bus didn't come till 6:30PM. My eyes, head and neck started paining looking for the bus. It was slowly getting dark. There were mosquitos flying around. Finally I took an auto-rickshraw back home paying Rs 100!

Well, I am not going to do this experiment once again. With two kids at home, the last thing I would do is to spend an hour in a bus stop.

Piripiri

Came to know from a colleague that there is a word in Konkani called piripiri which is synonymous to the Assamese word beberibang.

I like this word: piripiri :-)

New BMTC Volvo Route 319CT

I live in Hoodi near ITPL, Bangalore and work in Synopsys which is in RMZ Infinity, Old Madras Road. There are lots of buses in this route; but there is not a single Volvo bus. There is a good news coming from BMTC today that a new Volvo bus route has been launched from Whitefield (near Sathya Saya Baba Hospital) to KBS, Majestic via RMZ Infinity. This route is named 319CT. (KBS is Kempegowda Bus Station, also known as Majestic Bus Station opposite to Bangalore Central railway station).

BMTC has also launched two more new Volvo buses through my place Hoodi:

• 335 ET: From Whitefield, Hoodi to KBS Majestic via Graphite India, Marathahalli
• 504: From Hoodi to Domlur

The details of these buses and their timings are available in this excel-sheet that we have received from BMTC.

I am more interested in 319CT as it covers my office route. However I found that BMTC's spread-sheet for 319CT is a bit confusing. So I've created a new view of the 319CT timing here. See my view of 319CT here in PDF format or Excel format.

There will be three buses plying in this route. I have used three color codes (yellow, blue and white) for these three buses in my table. A bus start from KBS and then goes to Whitefield. It takes 5 minutes break in Whitefield and then returns to KBS. See the following two tables.

Let us start using these buses. We can help in reducing Bangalore's traffic condition by using public transportation and contribute to a greener earth.