Footpath shops appear to have returned with a vengeance to the pavements of Pondy Bazaar.
Around a dozen shops have come up again on Sivaprakasam Street, Lakshmikanthan Street and Dr. Singaravelan Street as well as on the arterial Thyagaraya Road.
Outlets on Singaravelan Street came up within a few months after the Chennai Corporation moved over 600 shops off the pavements to a shopping complex in Pondy Bazaar in November 2013. Shops on Sivaprakasam Street began cropping up last month. In the last week, at least a dozen fruit and vegetable shops have come up.
Inside the shopping complex, half of the third floor remains unoccupied though 14 shops have been provided place. On the second floor, over a dozen shops remain unoccupied. The Corporation’s Kodambakkam zonal office has pasted notices on the shutters of the unoccupied shops, warning that if the allottees failed to occupy the shops within three days, they would forfeit their right over the outlet as per court orders. The notices were issued on June 27.
Shopkeepers cite lack of patronage from customers for returning to the pavements. Even those who were allotted shops in the complex have occupied the pavements on Usman Road too. “It is now 10 months and business has not picked up,” said a shop owner on the second floor of the complex.
Sait, secretary, Pondy Bazaar Petty Shop Traders’ Association, who runs a shop on the same floor, said the civic body has appointed four persons to maintain the complex. The Corporation is yet to fix rents or take up maintenance of the shops. “We have also asked for security personnel for the complex,” he said.
“The big shops have rented out space on the pavements to their friends and relatives. They pay a rent of Rs. 1,000 a day. We want the Corporation to allot us space in the new shopping complex proposed near T. Nagar bus terminus. But the Mayor is silent. If this continues we will all shut shop and return to the pavements,” he added.
