Pune roads flooded with shoppers on Diwali eve

With more people on the streets, major traffic congestions were also reported on city roads due to the Diwali shopping rush

A day before Diwali, the streets of Pune were filled with buyers on Friday.

Residents purchase materials for Diwali Laxmi puja at Chinchwad market, on Friday. (HT PHOTO)

Major city market areas like Laxmi road, Tulshibaug and Raviwar peth reported a huge rush. Residents had stepped out to purchase various things for Diwali from clothes, sweets, electronic goods, gold jewellery and other household items.

With more people on the streets, major traffic congestions were also reported on city roads due to the Diwali shopping rush and traffic police were seen monitoring the vehicular movement.

“From the last one week slowly the business is growing and in the last two days, there is a heavy rush at our shop to purchase clothes. We have made face mask compulsory and only four to five customers are allowed at one time inside the shop. Also, each and every customer is given a hand sanitiser and their thermal checking is done before entering the shop. We had to keep adding two people at the shop to clear the rush,” said Rushi Jain a clothing shop owner on Laxmi road.

There are three major roads for Diwali Shopping in Pune city – Laxmi road, Kumthekar road and Tilak road. There was also a crowd on Friday at Tulshibaug, Bohri Aali and Raviwar peth markets.

Deepak Chaudhaury, electronic shop owner on Tilak Road said, “Due to Covid-19 pandemic, there was a slow start to the sale of electronic goods, but as we kept various festival offers, attractive EMI options for customers there is a good response now. Though people have suffered financially during the lockdown the sales of electronic goods are increasing now. We hope that the overall market business condition gets better from Diwali.”

Punekars have been enthusiastic of Diwali shopping despite the fear of Covid-19 infection spread.

Shweta Kanade a housewife said, “This year due to the Covid situation we had already decided to not shop as much, we only bought festive clothes for children. And washing machine for the house as it was a long pending in our list to buy. Going to shop in the current market rush is still a risk and so we avoided the frequent trips outside. We have come out in a market place only for today and from now we will celebrate the festival at home.”