Cautious visitors as Elante mall, temples open in tri-city

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh,  June 8

Over two months after Covid-19 pandemic resulted in their shutdown, malls, temples and restaurants reopened in Chandigarh on Monday amidst cautious visitors and elaborate sanitisation activity.

At one of the biggest malls in the region, the Elante in Chandigarh, very few visitors dropped in during the first few hours. The authorities at the mall have created multi-layered security set up to ensure safety of visitors. “For us footfall doesn’t matter much, safety of the visitors and those having shops and showroom is of utmost importance, ‘’ said Executive director, Nexus malls, Anil Malhotra who oversees the operation at the Elante.

As per the MHA guidelines the malls will be operated at 30 per cent of their capacity. “Nobody without a mask will be allowed in. Also we have set up CCTV mechanism inside, so whenever we spot violation of social distancing, our security staff will rush and disperse people,’’ said Malhotra. For those visiting the mall on the first day, adhering to safety guidelines seem to be a must. “We little apprehensive but we got to live with the virus. Need to be just careful and ensure we don’t violate guidelines,’’ said a resident, Rekha Kapoor.   

And not just malls, even places of worship reopened. At one of the biggest temples, Mansa Devi in Panchkula, the administrators have made online registration mandatory before allowing devotees. “The devotees will have to register online on our website, get an e-token and then only they will be allowed,’’  said Chief Executive Officer, Mansa Devi temple trust, M S Yadav. To begin with only 4500 e-tokens will be issued. The temple in normal times has around 35000 visitors daily on week days and about a lakh on weekends.