Shops open, but footfall a trickle in Patna

PATNA: After being closed for around two months, many textile, readymade garments, furniture and dry-cleaning shops besides salons opened their shutters in the city on Wednesday. The district administration has allowed such shops to open, except in the containment zones, from 11am to 4pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
“Controlled economic activities have been allowed in the city outside the containment zones.The shopowners have been asked to take care of sanitization and hygiene in the shops and maintain social distancing protocols to prevent the spread of Covid-19,” district magistrate Kumar Ravi said on Wednesday.
Eateries have also been allowed home delivery services, said Ravi, who inspected several restaurants and shops in the city in order to check whether they are taking all precautionary measures or not.
Shopkeepers, too, were relieved to get back to business after nearly 55 days of lockdown, but many of them also rued the poor footfall on Wednesday. Rajesh Kumar Sindhiya, owner of a furniture shop near Rukanpura, said he hardly received any customer on the first day of reopening the shop. “The response was not up to expectations, but I am still confident of doing good business in the coming days,” he said.
Similar was the response at salons and beauty parlours. “We received lukewarm response from the customers as very few booked appointments on Wednesday. The response from customers has gone down to 60% compared to pre-lockdown period, mainly because of the fear of getting infected by the virus,” said Romi Singh, who owns a salon at Saguna-Khagaul Road.
Some shopkeepers, on the other hand, demanded permits from the district administration to reopen their shops for longer hours. Shubham Kumar, owner of a garments showroom near Saguna Mor, said he didn’t receive any customer on Wednesday. “The working hours allowed is not the time people prefer shopping, especially in summer. The administration should allow us to open the shops till at least 6pm. If the situation prevails like this, we won’t be able to do any business,” he said.
Meanwhile, residents said they are avoiding going out for non-essential services. “Seeing the number of cases, I don’t feel it’s safe to go out. Besides, salon services or buying furniture or garments isn’t a necessity for me at this point of time. Hence, I have restricted myself indoors,” said Sudha Sharma of Boring Road.
Mustafapur resident Madhu Singh was, however, happy to receive her clothes from her dry-cleaner after two months. “At least 15 clothes were lying with the dry-cleaner located in Boring Road area. Even though washing the clothes again is required, I am happy to finally get them back,” she said.