kolkata almost twothird of nearly 25000 traders spread between esplanade and strand road in the central business district kept their shops opened on monday the first day of the threedayweek model markets in salt lake have also started following evenodd day pattern to reduce crowdalmost half of the shops on bentinck street were open while most of the shops on n s road were closed on monday shops on the strand road and wellington were also closed a large number of shops selling automobile parts were also closed after the association gave a call for sevenday closure there has been a dip in the number of buyers post lockdown as compared with the usual days it seems that traders are also jittery about the crowd now we have a meeting on monday where we will take feedbacks from each of the member organisations said sushil poddar president of the confederation of the trade associations cta the associations have been asked to identify suitable days of the week when they want their cluster of shops to remain opened each of them has their preferences and i think we will streamline things in a weeks time said rajesh bhatia secretary of the cta meanwhile bengal cycle traders association has asked their members to keep cycle shops open on tuesdaythursdayfriday there are markets like tiretti bazar where it is difficult to enforce such regulations but most of the organised traders have agreed to the proposition we have 150 members and they are trying to follow the model said ravi jajodia president of bengal cycle traders association alternate day closure model started in salt lake as well from monday cops campaigned with microphone in some market places urging people to wear masks and follow other safety measuresin baisakhi and its adjacent areas under ward 30 all three markets were closed on monday and these would also remain shut on wednesday and friday we have urged the standalone shops at the ground floor of residences to down their shutters after 5pm said a civic official of ward 30 the evenodd day structure was followed across 17 market complexes in salt lake other local markets in some areas will remain closed on tuesday thursday and saturday some of the markets will follow early morning shifts while some stores will remain open from 6am till noon the civic authorities are however not enforcing any strict order in this regard as they are leaving the matter for local councillors to take a call we want all the market complexes to be sanitized at least once a week said shyamal kanti roy secretary of bidhannagar kendriya bazar byabosayee samity that has welcomed the civic bodys plan to keep the markets closed on alternate days