BANGALORE: The earmarking of a commercial corridor along the proposed metro tracks on the lines of mass transport systems abroad is one of the recommendations that Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRC) has made to the State Government. The BMRC has suggested that 50 metres on either side of the tracks should be set aside for vertical growth. In the Taiwanese capital Taipei, 100 metres on either side of the metro rail had been declared a corridor.

To enable vertical growth, the Government should allow an increase in floor area ratio (the ratio of land to the height of the building on it) from the present 1:1.75 to 1.5, V. Madhu, Managing Director, BMRC, told The Hindu .

A BMRC team, which visited Hongkong, Bangkok, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur, was impressed by the transport-oriented growth model there.

The team will soon submit a detailed report to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Mr. Madhu said.

Others in the team were Sudhir Chandra, Adviser to BMRC, and Sandeep Das, Executive Director (Finance).

The team saw huge property development along the metro or monorail corridors. In one instance (Tsing Yi, Hongkong), 3,500 families lived in a high-rise building with a metro rail station in the basement.

People had easy access to the metro as offices and commercial centres were located in the corridor alongside it. Bangkok, which resembles Bangalore in size and population, too had opted for this model.

It had 130 km of elevated road and had plans for 120 km of mass rapid transport system with a third of it already functional.

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