Small shops, car showrooms to open in Chennai – Times of India

Non-AC shops, service centres can function

CHENNAI: Making sail for near-total exit from lockdown, the Tamil Nadu government has released another list of 34 stand-alone trades, ranging from tea shops to vehicle showrooms, that can reopen on Monday – after remaining shut for 47 days.
Officially, of course, Tamil Nadu is under lockdown till May 17. However, come Monday, except educational institutions, places of worship, theatres, malls and mass transports, all sectors will be up and running. The 669 new cases, including 509 in Chennai city alone, reported on Sunday notwithstanding, Tamil Nadu is well and truly on exit mode.
Two-wheeler and four-wheeler showrooms, service centres for electronic goods, motors and computers, hardware stores, bakeries, parcel-only eateries, couriers, lorry booking offices, photocopying centres and those dealing with construction materials are among the trades that opened up on Sunday.
City police have rolled up their sleeves to continue enforcement of pandemic protocols. “No pillion riders on two-wheeler and not more than three in a four-wheeler. This is the norm, besides compulsory wearing of masks,” said an officer, admitting that Monday will see much more vehicles on road.
Government’s announcement on Sunday has certain fig leaf-like conditions inserted perhaps not to give an impression that all is back to old normal. For instance, while permitting ‘small’ jewellery shops ‘without air-condition’ to reopen all across the state except, of course, in containment zones, the release says ‘small’ textile shops can open only in rural areas. What is ‘small’ has not been defined. It also expressly bars salons, spa and beauty parlours from reopening. There are other conditions like shops should not run airconditioner and they should strictly follow social distancing with customers. Other standard operating procedures such as labour safety and fumigation of premises too have been stressed.
The announcement spawned another round of bulk messages and customer calls from standalone ‘small’ outlets. “Our shop has been fumigated and sterilised, and it is safe to visit now. New stocks too have arrived,” said a showroom manager of Soch in Adyar on Sunday.
T Venkatesh, who owns home products shop in Mylapore, said that unlike what they went through after calamities like Chennai floods and Cyclone Vardah, reopening of businesses is not a long-drawn process now. “It is not a calamity where our assets are reduced to rubble, and we have to rebuild them from the scratch,” he said.
“Restarting is the first good thing to happen in 50 days, though our marketing team will be extremely stressed out,” said A Venkateswaran, who heads a packaging unit near Tiruttani. “Our woes are proportionate to the number of employees we engage, as paying them full salary, feeding and sheltering them during the lockdown was a challenge,” he said.
Upbeat about reopening the business, Venkatesh said customers will, however, take a while to return. “We have to wait out for customers to step out of pandemic blues. It may take a couple of months before some semblance of normality returns,” he said.