Garuda Mall is the premier shopping mall in the city of Bangalore, India, which is also home to the city's second oldest Shoppers Stop branch, and the oldest one in the city which is attached to a mall. It is situated on Magrath Road at the heart of the central business district in Bangalore, near Brigade Road. The mall has opened another branch in the Heritage City, Mysore near K. R. Circle. Another branch in Kochi with French cuisine and heritage.
Site and built-up area
The Garuda mall is spread out over 126,000 m2 (1,360,000 sq ft) and includes 30,000 m2 (320,000 sq ft) of shopping and entertainment space on six floors and 180 stores.
Bangalore's second oldest Shoppers Stop branch, and the oldest one in the city attached to a mall (the oldest one dating back to 1995 is a multi-storey building called Raheja Point opposite the same mall which is now Ashok Nagar HomeStop)
Controversies
The mall has come under criticism for its safety measures as the ThyssenKrupplift in the mall had crashed in 2005[2] and, in a separate incident, a boy had died of fall from a higher floor in 2007.[3]
In January 2011, the BBMP Standing Committee (Markets) decided to carry out a surprise inspection of the mall. According to the Committee chairman and Basaveshwaranagar Ward S corporator SH Padmaraj, they had received complaints of "building deviation by the mall-owner". Padmaraj alleged that the mall was cheating BBMP while housing more than 80 shops on a single floor, while paying a monthly rent of ₹ 3.5 million to the BBMP for only 80 shops. He also alleged that the mall had encroached upon a stormwater drain and had converted a parking lot into a food court, violating the agreement.[5] The mall's majority owner Uday Garudachar claimed that the committee members had no right to conduct an inspection without his permission. He also alleged that the inspection was carried out because he had refused the corporators' demand for a bribe.[5]