Maharashtra lockdown | 5 million retail jobs at stake: Shopping Centres Association

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The Shopping Centres Association of India (SCAI) has written to Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray urging him and the state government to take concrete steps to urgently open malls in the state.

Maharashtra has more than 75 malls across the state, with almost 50 percent spread across Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Thane, Kalyan, Navi Mumbai, Dombivli, etc. Similarly, Pune has more than 20 percent malls while the rest are spread across Amravati, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nashik, Nagpur, Aurangabad, etc.

The lockdown has also put plans of more than 30 malls on hold, which are currently under construction.

In its letter to Thackeray, SCAI has hinted that 5 million people involved in modern retail may lose their jobs if urgent action is not taken by the state government. This is being seen as a result of the revenue freeze following the lockdown, which has impacted the entire retail industry.

Retailers and shopping centres said it is becoming increasingly difficult with every passing day to meet day-to-day expenses, including salaries, due to zero revenue and cash reserves drying up over the last few months.

The first big impact could be seen as early as August, SCAI said.

According to SCAI, stocks worth crores of rupees of retailers are getting damaged and the fear is that it will lose its value if not immediately sold.

“The industry has already seen losses exceeding Rs 100,000 crore. Maharashtra is a critical market for shopping centres and a delay in opening malls will prove to be a death knell for us”, said Amitabh Taneja, Chairman SCAI.

Citing examples of states where malls have been allowed to open up, SCAI said it has developed and rolled out stringent standard operating procedures (SOPs) in over 500 shopping malls across the country that opened up and have successfully been able to implement social distancing guidelines along with other necessary measures in the best possible manner.

While malls have opened in most states from June 8 onwards, Maharashtra is yet to take a decision on easing the lockdown. At present, malls are operational in major metros and Tier I cities. Cities which have opened malls include Delhi, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Jaipur, Ahmedabad as well as small but populous cities such as Agartala, Bhopal, Siliguri, Raiganj, Indore and more recently Cuttack to name a few.

Malls that have opened have been capping the number of visitors along the guidelines laid down by SCAI and the health ministry.

SCAI in its letter to the tourism and environment minister has made some pointed recommendations on guidelines that should be implemented once malls are opened up.

Among these include strict crowd control by adopting a 75 square feet per person formula within malls and retail stores, mandatory use of the government’s Aarogya Setu app to enter malls, around 60-70 percent staffing with single shift operations on all days, food court and restaurant seating to be reduced to 50 percent, lesser parking to maintain social distancing, encouraging contactless payments, isolation room facility, availability of oxygen cylinders and ambulance-on-call.