Haryana government has issued notification to all the malls in Gurgaon to close on Tuesdays. The reason is power saving and easing the traffic congestion for residents near the malls. I don’t think this is a good move. Malls are not just a shopping destination but for most of the people visiting them it’s getting food and being entertained all in the same place.

Delhi, Haryana get super hot during the summer season and a lot of people have been going to the malls to chill out. Not only does this help them beat the heat but also bring in a lot of revenue to the malls shops and theaters. No showroom owner would be happy with his store being closed on 1 days of the week.

Broadly speaking being closed 1 day out of the 7 days does not sound a lot but calculate it in terms of percentage and you will soon see that it is about 15% which is a whole lot. Not just that, we talk about Delhi and Gurgaon as world class cities and hopefully down the line as a holiday and shopping destinations, this does not bowl if shopping destinations are closed one day in a week.

The problem is that, the cities have not been planned properly. If they would have been, then electricity and traffic would not have been a problem. Instead of admitting that the authorities made a mistake somewhere, and trying to tackle the root cause, they have been pressuring on the wrong people.