On Thursday, the second day of relaxations, most of the shops on Cross Cut Road, Variety Hall Road, and Oppanakara Street remained shut in the Coimbatore Corporation limits. Roadside food or tea sellers, flower vendors, and autorickshaws were back to business in a few places. Industries and shops in rural areas started functioning. Nearly 20 textile units in town panchayats in the district had commenced operations.
While use of masks seemed to be accepted, personal distancing remained elusive in most places.
Members of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore, met District Collector K. Rajamani on Thursday and appealed to him that shops that were not in the negative list need to be permitted to function. “The Collector has given permission. He said the retail outlet should not be in a multi-storeyed building, should not have AC and all precautionary measures should be followed. But standalone shops in some areas are not able to open,” said C. Balasubramanian, vice-president of the Chamber.
Another trader said the number of retail outlets that were opened on Thursday seemed to be more than that of Wednesday. “There are some teething problems. But these will settle down in a day or two,” he said.
In the case of industries, those within the Corporation limits, especially the MSMEs, most of the industry owners said they were waiting for the government permission to commence operations. “We hope to start functioning from next week,” said one of them.
The district administration had permitted pumpset units and large-scale industries in the district to operate. These units need components and spares. If the micro and small-scale units were not allowed to open shutters, it would not be possible for the larger industries also to operate their facilities for long, said J. James, president of Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Tiny Enterprises.
In Tiruppur, District Collector K. Vijayakarthikeyan inspected a couple of garment units to see if all precautionary measures were followed on the premises.
