Sitting in a cozy corner of a stylish, apartment on Lavelle Road, you're drinking in the halcyon ambience and enjoying the melodious orchestra of winged friends.
The DNA-IMRS project surveyed 1,100 residents across Greater Bangalore, coming up with the definitive list of the city’s livability index. This quality-of-life metric is defined by a respondent’s experience and perception of facilities like housing, education, entertainment, infrastructure, and security, among other things.
Two worlds, poles apart: the place is off Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bangalore. It's, without argument, the heart whose veins and arteries feed life to the rest of the city.
Sitting in a cozy corner of a stylish, futuristic apartment on Lavelle Road, you're drinking in the halcyon ambience and enjoying the melodious orchestra of winged friends whose refuge, Cubbon Park, is nearby. And, you come out and walk a few hundred yards, and the street bursts into a hurly-burly motorised chaos, numerous shops, malls, pubs and offices, all doing a brisk biz.
"I've lived in many cities," blogged RK Ninan living in an apartment off Kasturba Road, "but I haven't seen the magic of the areas surrounding MG Road that, while doing rippling business, hides a calm and serenity only a street away. In one moment you are out in the crowd and in another you are ensconced in the safety of your home, in tranquillity unparalleled." This is what entraps visitors to Bangalore's MG Road areas.
MG Road stretches from Trinity Circle to the Gandhi Park, a distance of just 2.5km. What gives it a special status is that it links Museum Road, Brigade Road, and other commercial hubs. It is also pretty close to the central shopping area, Commercial Street.
The residential areas off MG Road comprise Brunton Road, Lavelle Road, Richmond Road, Kasturba Road, Walton Road, Museum Road, Rest House Road, Vittal Mallya Road and adjoining areas. The property prices of these areas have never gone down, even at the peak of the global meltdown.
"What defines the MG Road area is its wholesomeness. But, the Metro has changed the face of MG Road and the resultant traffic snarl has made corporate honchos move off MG Road to save time and energy," says KS Raghavendra, a businessman on MG Road.
"There is no more land available in these areas," says Aziz Ahsan, a property dealer, "Only apartments are available for corporate rent or buy. Generally, even in areas touching MG Road, no apartment is available for less than Rs50 lakh. But areas off Vittal Mallya Road, the price per square feet is anything between Rs20,000 and Rs30,000. And, it is a notch down on Lavelle Road and Brunton Road."
To give an idea of the prices of property here, Ahsan pointed out one of the scores of advertisements: "4,800 sq ft 4bhk beautiful luxurious penthouse with wooden flooring, terrace garden, three reserved car parking, generator back up, staff qtrz, built in wardrobes for sale at Kasturba Road, prime location sale Rs8.25cr." And, for rent, a 2-bedroom flat would cost you anything between Rs1.25 lakh to Rs2 lakh a month with 10 months' deposit up front.
MG Road also has a pride of place in commerce. Most of the prestigious offices and institutions have their offices on or off MG Road.
MG Road and its surroundings are the entertainment and leisure capital of Bangalore. Brigade Road and Church Street have the maximum number of pubs in the whole of Asia. "Even if people live in a penthouse in say, Indiranagar or CV Raman Nagar or Jayanagar, they must come here to their favourite watering hole, or to pick up luxury goods," said Poonam Sippy, marketing manager of Motwani builders, who pioneered malls in Bangalore.
"The middle name of Brigade Road," says Sohail Yusuff, secretary of the Brigade Road Shops and Establishment Association, "is Honest Road. It is Bangalore's High Street where people have the feeling of safety and trust. Here no cheating is done."
And, it is, again, on MG Road and adjoining areas, including Cubbon Park, where young hearts bond. For a movie, for a bit of necking, for a chilled beer and fried pork in a pub the young must come here.
"The young hearts' areas are shrinking," bemoans Raj Budhwan, a chemical engineer in his late twenties. "More bricks and less green, and on top of it, the lazy police want to shut down when the night is still young."
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