Shimla Ward Watch - Ram Bazar: No parking, no customers; shopkeepers count losses

Navneet Rathore

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Shimla, April 12

The lack of parking space in Ram Bazar ward of the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) is keeping customers away, giving anxious moments to shopkeepers, who say this contributes to their business failing to soar.

They claimed that many younger customers do not visit the market due to the lack of parking space.

Located near the Old Bus Stand, Ram Bazar acts as a gateway to the historic Ridge and The Mall, the two key tourist spots in the city. Dinesh Kumar, a resident of Ram Bazar, who also runs a cloth shop here, said their day-to-day business had been greatly affected due to the lack of the parking facility. “Locals as well as tourists do not come to the market for shopping as hardly any parking space is available here,” he added.

He said the daily business was down by almost 80 per cent and had not picked up since the Covid pandemic. Krishna Rajput, another resident of the area, said most of the time shopkeepers had to sit idle due to the lack of customers.

“It has become very difficult to run the business here and most of the shopkeepers are worried due to lack of interest from the customers,” said Rajput. She also blamed the boom in the online shopping culture as another reason behind dwindling customer numbers.

“Many people have shifted to online shopping platforms. They prefer to buy things from websites and shy away from shopping from offline stores. This has also affected the business to a great extent,” she said.Ram Bazar Councillor Sushma Kuthiala admitted that the lack of parking space was indeed a big problem in the ward.

She said there was no space to construct a parking facility. “If people can give us space, we will construct a parking facility here,” she said.