chennai new white mannequins clad in shimmery saris and crisp mens formals shine under the fluorescent lights in the display window of thakurdas choithram a textile showroom next to the lic building as work is underway to accommodate more display racks the 20yearold showroom is being spruced up with new display boards and fresh interiors as metro rail construction is complete and the stretch is going to be made twoway for traffic from august 3we are renovating as the construction is over we hope to get more customers from now on said habibullah the store managermany businesses that bore the brunt of metro rail construction in the past seven years and managed to survive are now refurbishing showrooms as the restoration of traffic flow is expected to give anna salai its life back the last few years had been tough we kept the shop running in a small way we stopped stocking up as there was no place to display or sell our footfall dropped considerably said habibullahfor decades anna salai has been the central business district catering to corporate offices banks book stores publishing houses libraries textile shops and automobile showrooms while it lost its premium commercial hub stature to radhakrishnan salai when many big brands shifted their businesses and eventually to shopping malls in various corners of the city it was worst hit by metro rail construction since 2012while many retailers like coffee shops restaurants and publishing houses either shifted or shut permanently due to poor business landmark stores like poompuhar and higginbothams managed to survive though barricades and large holes stole their visibility and discouraged customers from visiting due to lack of space and traffic diversionswe saw a huge drop in footfall as the space in front of our store was dug up and customers had no place to park but in the past few months we have already seen a growth of around 20 in the coming days we hope to see more crowd said a staff at higginbothams which is gearing up to celebrate its 175th yearshashi khanna of roshanlals a sari showroom near thousand lights said our business was severely hita senior staff at poompuhar said we didnt see much drop in footfall but our customers may no longer have to take a circuitous route to come to our storethe nearly 65yearold american book centre which shifted to a nearby commercial complex before the metro rail construction began is now preparing to put new display boardsold buildings have already started giving way for the new ones a car showroom is being set up near next to thousand lights metro station and two big builders have started constructing commercial complexesthe new metro stations along anna salai including lic and thousand lights are expected to enhance connectivity to the arterial road and help create more business real estate experts said demand for space as well as rentals may go up in the coming months with metro rail construction over demand will increase exponentially because connectivity will