Ahead of Deepavali, shoppers descend on N.S.B. Road

The city on Sunday witnessed heavy traffic flow, leading to traffic snarls at various places, as shoppers descended on commercial thoroughfares ahead of Deepavali.

N.S.B Road, a popular commercial hub known for housing a number of textile showrooms, was filled with last minute Deepavali shoppers.

Since Sunday morning, large number of people, including women and children, thronged N.S.B Road, which is often referred to as a commercial paradise.

Besides regular traders, seasonal hawkers and pavement shoppers sprang up in large numbers along Singarathope, Big Bazaar, Nandhi Kovil Street, Chinnakadai Street to cash in on the Deepavali demand.

Some said, that Sunday's crowd on N.S.B Road was one of the largest seen in the shopping history of Tiruchi. Since Deepavali is falling in the first week of November, people, who had drawn salary on the first or second day of November, thronged the area for indulging last minute shopping.

Though the late onset of Northeast monsoon had threatened the traders and vendors of textile, grocery and sweet stalls, Sunday turned out to be a sunny day, thereby giving a further boost to sales.

Inquiries with traders revealed that were seeing brisk business mainly due to agricultural activities that had gained momentum.

“Business is brisk this year when compared to last year mainly because of bright agricultural activities. If farmers have money, the business will be good,” said A. Raja, a textile vendor on Big Bazaar street.

The surging crowds and vehicles on streets and roads had its impact around Mainguard Gate, Salai Road, Chathiram Bus Stand, Singarathope. It led to a number of traffic snarls and insufficient traffic policemen also contributed to the traffic snarls in some places.

“More traffic policemen should have been posted along busy roads. In the absence of sufficient traffic policemen, we had to alight from our vehicles to ensure flow of vehicles,” a vehicle driver said while trying to untangle a traffic jam on Karur bypass road.

Source