Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Shoppers rush in where safety is uncertain

— PHOTO: R. RAGU

SHOPPERS ALL: Hundreds seen along N.S.C. Bose Road in Parry’s Corner recently. How safe will it be for shoppers this festive season?

CHENNAI: The festival season has arrived with people thronging the city’s shopping districts. With the crowd increasing by the day ahead of Deepavali, safety concerns come to the fore.

One person’s pleasure is another’s pain. Residents in areas around the shopping districts are already dreading the festival season. In areas such as Mylapore, particularly around the temple tank, and Usman Road in T. Nagar, the roadsides are bursting at their seams with customers rushing to buy dolls and other knick-knacks for Navarathri festival. The N.S.C. Bose Road in George Town, where firecracker sales will be brisk in a fortnight, there is as yet little evidence of safety measures.

The recent fire in a shop on Ranganathan Street, in which two employees died, has not really worried shoppers. Traders and shop-owners, however, say they have taken measures to protect their items and storage space. While police officials and traders in various parts of the city have held meetings with the aim of ensuring better movement of crowds, residents in shopping districts remain a harried lot.

For residents in Usman Road, Ranganathan Street, Ramanathan Street and Rameswaram Road, it continues to remain difficult to get out of their homes. Their repeated appeals to vendors who block entrance to their houses and to the police have not helped.

G. Premanand, a resident of Subramaniam Street, Purasawakkam, said the street, located in the heart of the commercial zone of Purasawakkam High Road, is turned into a parking lot for the shoppers during the festival season. “During festive season, the residents would be put under a situation similar to ‘house arrest’, as two-wheelers and auto rickshaws would be parked and we cannot move freely.”

The roads branching from Puraswakkam High Road are narrow and residents are put to severe hardship. They allege that the problem is inadequate parking facilities at shops and ineffective policing that are unable to prevent vehicles parking in interior streets.

With the city expanding its limits, well-known brand names in jewellery, textiles, consumer durables and utensils have opened branches in other residential areas such as Anna Nagar and Velachery. “Every popular shop in T. Nagar has opened a branch in Anna Nagar. At the shops in II Avenue and Shanthi Colony, we get anything from jewellery to textile and electronic goods. We don’t go to T. Nagar anymore,” said I. Lalitha, a resident of Anna Nagar.

In these new shopping areas, parking is already a problem. It would be a challenge for the police to ensure easy flow of traffic near the Velachery Main Road-Bypass Road junction, residents here said. The City Police Commissioner has said that additional security cover would be offered during the festival season in places where people gather in large numbers. Over nine teams, including policemen in plainclothes, will mingle with crowds to watch for pickpockets and other thefts. “A few of the new arrangements have already come into effect and the others will be implemented shortly,” he said.

Some careful planning on the part of shoppers is necessary while they are shopping, said K R Shyam Sundar, Director of Fire and Rescue Services. Elementary training in fire safety measures and regular fire drills are necessary to avoid accidents, he added. “Knowledge of the layout of the escape routes, staircases, refuge areas and the location of the fire alarms of the building will help.”

In large commercial areas, family members must have a designated meeting place outside the building for all members in case of a fire. It is better not to wear synthetic clothing while visiting a crowded shopping place.

Inform the Fire Service Department of the basic details of the accident. Tell fire-fighters about missing persons and do not attempt to go into the fire to rescue them. “Tie a wet handkerchief as an eye shield to prevent damage to the eyes. During a fire crawl low under the smoke and try to keep the mouth covered,” Dr. Shyam Sundar said. The best way to escape a fire is to crawl fast with eyes closed as the temperature is relatively low near the floor.

(With inputs from R. Sujatha, R. Srikanth and Aloysius Xavier Lopez)

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