Cyclone Mandous brings down business in Bengaluru’s marketplaces by 80 per cent

BENGALURU: Cyclone Mandous has brought in a deluge of problems to Bengaluru, as traders are complaining that because of incessant rain and cold weather, their business has gone down by nearly 80 per cent over the last four days. Normally, traders do good business in December as people buy gift items and make a lot of purchases. But the cyclone has dampened the pre-Christmas buying frenzy.

GN Diwakar, president, Krishnarajendra Market Traders’ Association, said, “The business is almost nil in many shops at the market. Here, 25 different types of trade are carried out, with 2,100 stalls and 25,000 traders. But the business has taken a hit since Friday and it is nearly 80 per cent down.”

Mohammed Idreer Chaudry said 471 stalls in Russell Market and traders in seven other markets in Shivajinagar have suffered heavily. In these areas, there are many street vendors, where they sell fish and other items. But with the rain, they have not been able to do any business.

“It is time the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) provided rain shelters around markets. This will help customers wait till the rain stops and then do their purchases,” he added.

Decreased supply
At the Madiwala vegetable market, traders said that farmers from Hoskote, Anekal, Hosur, Malur, Channasandra, Kolar and Kanakapura have not been able to bring their produce here because of the rain.
“The supply is less and there are no customers for the last four days. Nearly 300 traders at the market have been hit hard,” said A Pyarejan, president, Madiwala Market  Traders’ Association.