Traders along M.G. Road are keeping their fingers crossed as metro services reached out to the heart of the city upto Maharaja’s College Ground on Tuesday.
Having witnessed their businesses hit badly allegedly by the construction work of Kochi metro, they remain optimistic of redemption at last, though cautiously. While their grouse of narrow road and absence of parking facility persists, traders are hopeful of an upswing in their fortune now that the metro has chugged its way to their doorsteps.
Business hopes
“We stayed put on M.G. Road in the hope that the business will recover once metro reaches the city. It has just started services in the second stretch and it may take at least a week to assess its impact on business,” said Joy who manages a store of a prominent textile brand right next to the Maharaja’s station. The store originally stood on the site where the Maharaja’s station was built and had to shift when the land was acquired. Similar sentiments were expressed by other traders in the locality. Rajesh Nair, M.G. Road Merchants Association coordinator and convener of Youth Forum, Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the metro construction had taken its toll on not less than half the business establishments along M.G. Road in the past couple of years. As sales slumped, many shops downed the shutters and gradually M.G. Road ceded its stature as the business hub to Edappally.
He hoped that the arrival of metro to the city would bring about a much needed turnaround.
Shebin Naushad, who runs a new generation tea shop just a few metres away from Maharaja’s College metro station, claimed that his shop lost almost 40% business since the launch of metro constructions along M.G. Road. “Most of us were waiting for this day for our businesses to start the journey on the path of recovery. You may have noticed that many shops along M.G. Road, which had remained closed for long, have now opened expectant of the arrival of metro. But there is now an apprehension about the patronage of the metro, on which our fortunes are dependent, as the entire metro stretch is far from complete. Parking also remains a major issue,” said Mr. Naushad.
A shop selling spiritual books in the vicinity was another business allegedly hit by metro work constructions and was now hopeful of a change in fortunes. Dennis Joseph, the store in-charge, attributed the loss of business to the barricading along M.G. Road in connection with metro construction works and the loss of parking space. “We couldn’t afford to shift somewhere else since we owned the building from which the shop operates. A store in our neighbourhood had to shut shop after its land was acquired,” he said.
