kolkata the oddandeven formula for opening of shops in big markets got off to a hopeful start on tuesday with most markets in central kolkata adhering to the norm going by the formula almost half the shops in bagri market nandaram market sadasukh katra and raja katra markets and on ezra street remained shut on tuesday decreasing congestions within the trade areas as well as even on the roads as fewer number of goods vehicles customers and labourers attended business as soon as the pandemicinduced lockdown restrictions were eased the central kolkata trading hubs witnessed a rush of people out to make up for the lost time throwing caution to the winds but with covid cases increasing across the city and state trading associations at those markets on monday decided to try out the oddandeven or the alternateday formula to cut down on congestions according to their plans shops located side by side will not operate at the same time but will open on alternate days so that fewer people visit the markets and those coming can maintain social distancing norms effectively to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus however medicine clusters in some of the markets have been kept out of the ambit of the oddandeven formula since all the shop owners were informed about the plan on monday and a schedule was handed to them almost half the shops remained shut said asutosh singh president of the association in bagri market we could immediately see the results with aisles and stairs getting decongested and customers getting more space to wait for their turnthe onus is on the business community to figure out the best safety measures as once trains start ferrying passengers we will see a surge in footfalls and it will be difficult to control the situation said purushottam agarwal president of the association at nandaram market though a lot of customers who did not know about the oddandeven rule returned disappointed the first day businessmen were confident it would not affect businesses there may be a few teething problems but eventually both traders and customers will get used to the new arrangement said chandresh meghani president of the calcutta electric goods dealers association on ezra street