Half-day for malls, multiplexes

Most malls, multiplexes and shops and some food joints in the city were closed till late in the afternoon yesterday.

There were no reports of damage caused by political activists to business establishments and the bandh called over the Dadoji Konddeo statue issue was largely peaceful.

Most places remained shut as they did not want to take any chances with their safety.

Two of the city's most crowded shopping areas, MG Road and Laxmi Road, wore a deserted look.

Anant Sardeshmukh, executive director general of Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture, said the worst-affected area was Pirangut.

"Hinjewadi was functioning at its normal pace and so were the industries, but small-size businesses were closed for a half-day,' he said. Most of the multiplexes and single screen theatres were closed till 3 pm; when they did open, business did not pick up much.

Sugat Thorat, manager of City Pride, said, "We were closed till 5 pm and after we opened there was 10 to 15 per cent business. It was mostly people who had done advance booking."

While some malls like SGS Mall near MG Road and Pune Central on Bund Garden Road chose to remain open, the Pune Central on University Road and many others, including Kakade Mall, also on University Road, remained closed.

Safety first
Avinash Pratap, marketing head, Pune Central, said that though the mall on Bund Garden Road did business as usual, the one on University Road was closed till late in the afternoon.
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"It was for our own safety that we kept the University Road mall closed. After we opened, business has been average but the one on Bund Garden Road saw heavy rush of customers," said Pratap. "We got numerous calls enquiring whether we were open or not."

Virendrasingh Thakur, manager (operations), said, "We opened after 6 pm but business was very dull considering it's festive season. There were hardly any walk-ins."

Even restaurants, wine shops and eating-out joints hardly saw any crowd. Though most wine shops were closed, restaurants were open.

Ganesh Shetty, president of Pune Restaurant and Hoteliers Associations, said that as the number of office-goers was low, the afternoon crowd at eating-joints was also not much. "We had 20 per cent less business compared to other days. Some eating joints also remained closed," said Shetty.

Vijay Kutty, president of Pune District Wine Traders Association, said the total turnover for the day was down by almost 25 per cent.