Shopping malls in the city opened to lukewarm response on Wednesday. Most of the shopkeepers spent the first day cleaning and setting up the stock, and registered nil to low sale.
The manager of a women footwear store, “Vicinza”, at DLF Metropolitan Mall, Imran Miyan said there were hardly 10-12 visitors till afternoon and he did not register any sales. Mukesh, a manager at “Red Tape” store, said the shop had three entries and he sold only one pair of shoes. “Only those customers would visit who really want to shop,” he said.
The manager of a gift shop, Prashant Kumar, said almost 20% of the stores were still closed and many had disputes over high rents. He said with a slump in business, the tenants had been seeking 40-50% reduction in the rent. “It is not financially viable to run stores at the previously high rents,” said Mr. Kumar. He added that the business would improve only after the corporate offices and the metro rail were open.
Aman Bajaj, the owner of a music, movies and gaming store, “Music Festival”, said people were expected to throng the malls in large numbers since they had been stuck inside their houses for long. He had been informing the customers about the reopening of the store.
Har Singh Rathaur, manager of Haldiram’s at Sahara Mall, said the seating capacity had been reduced and the menu was also cut short.
“Gurugaman”, the city bus service run by the Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited, resumed its operations on two routes — Basai Chowk-HUDA City Centre (Mudrika) and Gurugram Bus Stand to Sohna — on Wednesday.
New routes
New routes and more buses will be added in phased manner. Sixty-eight buses will ply on six routes from Thursday. The four new routes to be added are: 134 (IFFCO Chowk to IMT Manesar), 112D (Gurugram Bus Stand to Sec-56, Ghata), 116F (Rajesh Pilot Chowk to Railway Station) and 122 (Gurugram Bus Stand to Sikanderpur Metro).
Buses would be sanitised prior to their running and abide by the Standard Operating Procedures, worked out by the GMCBL for drivers, conductors and passengers.