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Sunday is shopping day in Puducherry

— Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy

Buyers’ delight: A variety of products, ranging from textiles to electronic goods, are available at the Sunday Market on Mahatma Gandhi Road.

PUDUCHERRY: Come Sunday, the long stretch of Mahatma Gandhi Road turns into a shopping ground not only for Puducherrians but also for tourists. Offering a wide range of products, the Sunday market has grown into a popular site over the years, attracting huge crowds every Sunday.

Starting with varieties of textile items, fashion jewellery to footwear, electronic items, old books and house utilities, the roadside outlets of the Sunday market sell a plethora of products at affordable costs.

“The market draws a lot of people including tourists and foreigners. People get what they need here and that too at an affordable price. The crowd is huge every week,” said Santhanakrishnan, who has been selling bed covers, curtains and pillow covers for the last seven years here.

According to shopkeepers, the concept of Sunday market came in over 30 years ago. From different kinds of bags, plastic items, watches, garments, caps, electronic goods, the line of shops on M.G. Road seem to sell everything under the sky now.

Of all, it consists of numerous shops selling clothes for children.

Shopkeepers pointed out that the market continues to attract people over the years and persons from different strata of the society shop here. This was indeed a unique feature of the market, they said.

“While one stretch of M.G. Road primarily sells textile goods, the other side consists of toys for children, electronic goods and books priced from Rs.10 to Rs.50,” says A. Ilango, who runs an inner garments shop here for the last 31 years.

With over 2,000 shops, the Sunday market has grown into a popular one-stop shopping place for Puducherrians. “We have regular customers from Chennai too. Sellers from Tindivanam, Chennai, Villupuram and Puducherry put up their shops here. On Sundays, the regular shops on M.G. Road close their outlets,” he added.

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