With fashion week starting on October 23-27, right after the CWG, style gurus are fuming as the diverted routes and road blocks are hampering their work schedules. As most of them have their offices near the main venues of the CWG including Games Village, Nehru Stadium, Siri Fort Auditorium and Shahpur Jat, many are desperately looking for a way out.
Designer Nida Mehmood, who has her office in Shahpur Jat, narrates her side of the story. “I feel I’m the most affected as most of my employees stay nearby. They have been asked by local officials to vacate the area. They have even cancelled their identity cards. So, now we’re planning to make new I-cards with company details, so that they can start working as soon as possible,” she adds.
Besides that, traffic and waterlogging have also added to their woes and is affecting their work indirectly. “After the rains, the government did not even fumigate the construction site at Shahpur Jat. I really wonder on what has the government spent `70 cr? At least, they should have organised basic facilities for nearby areas that are affected due to the Games. It has become a hub of contagious diseases and power cut every two hours has led to further chaos,” adds Nida.
For few, endless traffic snarls due to the Games is another major problem. Says designer Preeti S. Kapoor, whose office is very close to the Games complex. She says, “It takes an hour to reach Shahpur Jat from Saket, although it’s just a 15 minute drive. Then useless frisking of labourers and closing down their entry leads to further problems. We can’t even shift our office from here. As the fashion week is nearing, we have missed our deadlines. We are just ensuring that somehow we complete our work.”
Designer Amit Aggarwal, whose office is in Okhla, has changed his working hours till the Games are on. “During the Games, bicycles are not allowed on the main CWG routes, it will be a problem for workers to reach office on time. More so, they are also diverting traffic to other routes and dividing roads for general and the CWG traffic flow. So, we have changed our work schedule from afternoon to early morning hours.”
Designer Gautam Gupta of the label Vinayak, who has already shifted his office to Greater Kailash, sums up, “We decided to shift, as the business was getting severely affected since our office is in Shahpur jat. As the traffic is crazy on the nearby roads, we’re missing out on a lot of buyers. And due to lack of public transport, even karigars are finding it difficult to reach to work on time. So, for the time being, we’re operating from our GK studio.”