Chennai's shopping hub falls silent as authorities step up

pungent smell of disinfectants and shut mega retail stores greet stragglers on Thiagaraya Nagar's Ranganathan Street here, city's shopping hub that usually teem with thousands of men, women and children.

coronavirus scare has snuffed life out of bustling street with only few customers and couple of security personnel around closed retail outlets.

Apart from se outlets, which sell a range of items right from top clothing brands to sandals- hawkers too are conspicuous by ir absence on busy Usman Road in Thiagaraya Nagar, popularly kwn as T Nagar.

In front of shut stores, a couple of security personnel were seen telling few customers that turned up that outlets will open once virus threat dissipates.

tices were also prominently displayed about closure due to coronavirus.

A board has been put at sprawling Panagal Park, a popular hangout in T Nagar for shoppers and public alike, anuncing that place was shut as part of precautionary measures to tackle virus. Similar is case with or big parks in city.

re also t many visitors to adjacent shopping area of Pondy Bazaar, which recently got a facelift with a pedestrian plaza.

usual police personnel around lanes and bylanes of busy shopping area were comparatively less in numbers. T Nagar is also famous for big ticket stores dealing in clothing, jewellery, and a range of items for everyday needs.

ubiquitous autorickshaw drivers on street said y have been affected in a big way. "Shoppers are our key customer base and we don't kw for how long we have to endure this ordeal," one of m said.

Sanitation workers said virus prevention measures have made ir jobs more tough as much was expected from m.

Authorities have stepped up preventive measures being followed for over a month to combat coronavirus.

shopping hub witnessed a major disinfection drive led by Commissioner of Revenue Administration, J Radhakrishnan and Commissioner, Chennai Corporation, G Prakash on Wednesday and y inspected if huge stores that used to see thousands congregating were shut as per government instructions.

Besides sanitation workers, vehicles fitted with disinfectant dispensers were deployed in downtown streets to carry out fumigation.

At city's biggest wholesale and retail vegetable, fruit and flower market -Koyambedu- all incoming trucks were fumigated under supervision of officials.

Similar, fumigation was carried out in a slew of or locations in city including government offices and police stations.

Top officials also inspected locations including Chennai Moffusil Bus terminus, a key inter and intra State bus transportation depot, and railway stations.

Awareness programmes were conducted by government officials for industry representatives, police and local welfare associations.

On March 16, Chief Minister K Palaniswami anunced closure of places where people congregated in large numbers like cinema halls and malls till March 31.

Representative Im