New Delhi

With the festive season inching closer and COVID restrictions in abeyance, sales saw a rise as markets in the national capital opened fully after a gap of two years due to the pandemic.

A crowd of people can be seen on the streets of the national capital, especially in markets for shopping for the upcoming festive season which includes festivals like Diwali.

Dussehra was celebrated recently. Chandni Chowk in Delhi is once again a witness to shopkeepers opening their shops without any restrictions and the customers thronging their shops in large numbers to get new clothes.

Expressing their ecstasy over the full-fledged business after a long time, the shopkeepers said that their sales have been boosted by nearly 200 per cent compared to during the pandemic.

A local shopkeeper said, "Business is going well with festivals around. Rush increased, sales boosted by almost 200 per cent as compared to the pandemic." Some of the shopkeepers and wholesalers said that their business is doing well with the regular arrival of customers these days at the shop.

"During the festive season, our business ran very well. Our business was boosted by 200 per cent from the pandemic. All going well nowadays. Customers come regularly but a few of them only do bargaining and go. We don't know the reason. Despite all of that, our sales increased after the pandemic because the number of buyers in the market has increased," said a shopkeeper.

A customer from Jabalpur said that she was happy with the reopening of markets and had come all the way to Delhi for shopping. "I heard about Chandi Chowk and today I saw the reason why.

I purchased a Lehenga here. The quality is very good. The same quality and brand, if I had purchased from some other place, it would cost nearly Rs 2 lakh, but we purchased it here for only Rs 30,000," she said. Another first-time visitor who came from West Bengal's Murshidabad said that the items are cheap in the market and their quality is satisfactory.