Paramananda Pal,
Karaya Road

Considering the environment-friendly ambience created in the present day shopping malls, there is practically no harm if they are set up in residential areas. Local residents will find it convenient to shop at leisure in the mall next door with ample scope of entertainment like eateries and cinemas. The demand for convenience, hygiene, eco-friendly environment and time will support the proximity of a well equipped mall.

Siddharth Mukherjee,
Address not given

Shopping malls should not be allowed to come up in residential areas. The presence of a mall will make the roads congested. Though well-known builders are constructing shopping malls on the premises of apartment blocks they are not thinking how people will suffer from chaotic traffic situations in future. It will be better if malls are built in commercial areas like Park Street and Camac Street and not in residential areas.

Shiv Shanker Almal,
Rawdon Street

Building malls in residential areas is not a good idea. They would cause parking problems besides affecting retail traders.

Gitanshu Naskar,
Domjur, Howrah

We must move ahead with the times. Members of a nuclear family most of the time do not have the time to shop from different areas of the city. So it is very convenient if all the necessary commodities are available under one roof close by. Hence shopping malls are being preferred.

Diptimoy Ghosh,
Salt Lake

I don’t think it is necessary to build so many malls in Calcutta. It is important to set up malls only after doing a thorough market research, on the affordability of local buyers. People who are fond of buying from general stores or retail shops normally don’t spend on malls. They find more pleasure and comfort in the conventional shops where they can choose and bargain. It is not right to think that a mall in a residential area will be able to cater to more customers. Gariahat Mall, for instance, has failed to attract crowds. So the random building of shopping malls should be restricted, or else they would end up as office buildings.

Naren Sen,
Santragachhi

I think shopping malls should not be allowed in residential areas. They tend to create noise pollution due to the number of cars that move in and out. Students, patients and senior citizens will not be able to stay in peace.

Nikhilesh Pathak,
Sodepur

Nothing bars the construction of shopping malls in residential areas. But we have already seen that Gariahat Mall was a flop. Most retailers were forced to down shutters. Sellers and buyers will, however, be benefited if shopping malls come up in residential areas. A large section of people visit malls for their day-to-day requirements. So, in my opinion it is wise to come up with shopping malls in residential zones.

Dinabandhu Mukherjee,
Behala

People need shops to purchase commodities for daily use and shops need customers to carry on business. So shopping malls should come up in residential areas. But they should be built over an adequate area since the existing ones are congested and navigating traffic near a mall is difficult for emergency vehicles like fire brigade engines and ambulances. The malls ought to be built with proper fire-fighting arrangements and car parking space.

Ranadip Das,
BT Road, Panihati

Yes. Some residential areas, like the ones beside EM Bypass, do not have a market nearby. If they don’t get a shopping mall as well, the residents would have to cover long distances to buy groceries. Moreover, residential areas can provide a lot of parking space. Steps should be taken for fire-protection measures in the malls.

M.L. Meena

Principal secretary, environment department, government of West Bengal

Residents need malls. But malls also create traffic congestion. So they are the ones to both enjoy the facilities and be affected by the upshot. Before approving a project, one has to check whether the area would leave sufficient open space and ensure proper circulation of traffic. Some of the big malls, like Forum on Elgin Road and South City on Prince Anwar Shah Road, have done neither. When these projects were sanctioned, our department was not in the picture. A notification is in force since March 2007 by which any housing project over 20,000 sq m needs environmental clearance from us. For this, one has to leave 25 per cent of the area as open space and some space for greenery.