Hyderabad: Two years after lockdowns affected the city and state due to the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses and establishments are looking forward to the normalcy they were used to before 2020. With Ramzan around the corner, the trading community is all geared up to cater to the seasonal demand.
Markets in the Old City at Pathergatti, Shehran, Gulzar Houz, Patel Market, New Lad Bazaar, Old Lad Bazaar bangle market, Khilwat, Moosa Bowli, Madina Building and Devan Deodhi are all spruced up for the brisk business they see in Ramzan.
More than 20,000 traders in the Old City of Hyderabad, both in showrooms and roadside vendors, do business from the Nayapul junction to the Charminar bus stand market. Traders deal with ready apparels both traditional and modern for men, women and children, footwear, curtains, beddings and other related furnishings, household articles, crockery and kitchenware etc.
Every market in Hyderabad’s Old City is famous for some or the other thing. The Lad Bazaar market for its lac bangles and cosmetics, Patel Market and Rikaab Gunj market for sarees and dress materials, Osmania Bazaar for crockery and utensils, Shehran market for burkhas, Madina Building stretch for sarees, shoes and readymade women’s apparel, Nayapul – Madina Building road for traditional footwear including kolhapuri chappal.
Traders in the Old City of Hyderabad expect business to be encouraging this year during Ramzan post the COVID-19 pandemic which began in 2020. Business activity in the last three years has been dull due to COVID-19 induced lockdowns, which led to severe financial problems and restrictions. “We are hopeful of good business this season,” said Abid Mohiuddin, general secretary, Old City Traders Association said.
Customers from Hyderabad and neighbouring districts of Telangana visit the market at least once to shop for the Ramzan festival. “People from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka also visit to purchase the stuff here. Because people, mostly women, feel without shopping at Pathergatti there is Eid shopping is incomplete,” he added.
The business in the Old City is intact in spite of online shopping growing and also with small markets mushrooming in neighbourhood of Tolichowki, Hafeezbabanagar, Kishanbagh, Vattepally, Tallabkatta and Yakutpura. “Festival shopping is done at Pathergatti and the fact is deeply rooted in minds of the public of Hyderabad,” said Hafeez Ahmed, a trader.
The entire city was shut due to the lockdown in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While things had partially opened up a year later in 2021, the partial lockdown was imposed in Ramzan after COVID-19 cases began increasing. Many workers and artisans in the Old City were out of jobs for months, leading to severe financial stress among people.
