The real cost of shutting down the national capital for this weekend’s G20 Summit of world leaders could run into thousands of crores, and that is just a ballpark figure.
All offices, shops, malls, restaurants, bars, and cinemas are to be shut down in New Delhi starting Friday, and through the duration of the G20 Summit till Sunday, September 10. Traffic restrictions spread beyond the Lutyens Zone into the route to various five-star hotels where dignitaries are staying, and the route to Delhi airport will see buses, taxis and autos stopped and private vehicular movement limited by barricades and route deviations.
The worst hit will be commercial establishments in central Delhi like shops and restaurants in the tony Connaught Place (CP), Khan Market and Chanakyapuri areas. Ironically, the shops here were expecting a bonanza of additional business with G20 delegates and “international visitors (coming to) experience India's unique shopping and culinary scenes," according to Retailers Association of India head Kumar Rajagopalan.
Both CP and Khan Market had undergone major facelifts, some privately done and many by Delhi’s civic bodies, anticipating a G20 business boom.
While that will go to waste, the cost of missed business is not loose change. For instance, the loss for the establishments in Connaught Place is estimated to amount to 100 crore over the three days.
For the smaller Khan Market, the most expensive retail destination in the country, business loss will be about Rs 30 crore over the three-day weekend period. Why it is of concern to the shopkeepers here is due to two factors — one, the high cost of renting a shop here, which could amount anywhere upwards of Rs 27 lakh a year by a conservative estimate for a small 150 sqft showroom. Loss of business for even one day then is a squeeze on your margins. Worse, when it is a three-day weekend period when traditionally 60 per cent of your business takes place.
With flights and trains also affected, what kind of delays and losses cargo will incur still has to be figured out. Delhi airport has a cargo handling capacity that is scalable to 2.5 million sqft and is the biggest air export point in the country.
As per 2021 figures, Delhi airport handled over 25,000 cargo flights. While these figures are from two years ago, keeping it as a base value would mean that over 200 cargo flights may be affected over the three-day period of shutdown, especially if the airport authorities decide to give priority to squeezing in as many passenger flights as possible on these days at the expense of cargo operations.
Additionally, the hundreds of thousands of container trucks that pour into Delhi every night have been told to keep off or take alternate routes during the Summit. Authorities say there will be no scarcity of milk, vegetables and other groceries in the national capital due to this, though a domino effect next week cannot be ruled out.
The e-commerce will be another loser, with authorities making it clear that delivery boys of the Amazon-Zomato brigade will not be given permission to ply. Food delivery, presently worth $5.3 billion nationally, will evidently take a hit due to this three-day blackout.
On the entertainment front, the weekend also sees the big opening of Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan. After the spectacular performance of his previous release Pathaan earlier this year, there are expectations that the new release will break opening day records and gross up to Rs 70 crore, but G20 restrictions could play spoilsport, with prestigious cinemas in the New Delhi area like Plaza, Odeon etc. and the PVR outlet in Chanakyapuri staying shut through the weekend.
Not everyone is losing out, though. Five-star hotels are charging all-time high rates during the G20, with rooms already earmarked and out of bounds for other clientele between Wednesday and Sunday in some 24 of the top notch hotels which will host the delegates to the conference. Presidential Suites are going at Rs 20 lakh a night, with VVIPs and top diplomats and journalists flying into the national capital for the event.
Weekend getaways and tour packages for leisure spots close to Delhi, like Mussoorie and Shimla are seeing huge interest, as many capital denizens plan to go out of the city to escape restrictions in shopping, entertainment and even e-commerce delivery during the extended weekend when offices are anyway shut. According to a leading travel portal, travel searches for going out of Delhi had increased nearly 40 per cent during this weekend.
All offices, shops, malls, restaurants, bars, and cinemas are to be shut down in New Delhi starting Friday, and through the duration of the G20 Summit till Sunday, September 10. Traffic restrictions spread beyond the Lutyens Zone into the route to various five-star hotels where dignitaries are staying, and the route to Delhi airport will see buses, taxis and autos stopped and private vehicular movement limited by barricades and route deviations.
The worst hit will be commercial establishments in central Delhi like shops and restaurants in the tony Connaught Place (CP), Khan Market and Chanakyapuri areas. Ironically, the shops here were expecting a bonanza of additional business with G20 delegates and “international visitors (coming to) experience India's unique shopping and culinary scenes," according to Retailers Association of India head Kumar Rajagopalan.
Both CP and Khan Market had undergone major facelifts, some privately done and many by Delhi’s civic bodies, anticipating a G20 business boom.
While that will go to waste, the cost of missed business is not loose change. For instance, the loss for the establishments in Connaught Place is estimated to amount to 100 crore over the three days.
For the smaller Khan Market, the most expensive retail destination in the country, business loss will be about Rs 30 crore over the three-day weekend period. Why it is of concern to the shopkeepers here is due to two factors — one, the high cost of renting a shop here, which could amount anywhere upwards of Rs 27 lakh a year by a conservative estimate for a small 150 sqft showroom. Loss of business for even one day then is a squeeze on your margins. Worse, when it is a three-day weekend period when traditionally 60 per cent of your business takes place.
With flights and trains also affected, what kind of delays and losses cargo will incur still has to be figured out. Delhi airport has a cargo handling capacity that is scalable to 2.5 million sqft and is the biggest air export point in the country.
As per 2021 figures, Delhi airport handled over 25,000 cargo flights. While these figures are from two years ago, keeping it as a base value would mean that over 200 cargo flights may be affected over the three-day period of shutdown, especially if the airport authorities decide to give priority to squeezing in as many passenger flights as possible on these days at the expense of cargo operations.
Additionally, the hundreds of thousands of container trucks that pour into Delhi every night have been told to keep off or take alternate routes during the Summit. Authorities say there will be no scarcity of milk, vegetables and other groceries in the national capital due to this, though a domino effect next week cannot be ruled out.
The e-commerce will be another loser, with authorities making it clear that delivery boys of the Amazon-Zomato brigade will not be given permission to ply. Food delivery, presently worth $5.3 billion nationally, will evidently take a hit due to this three-day blackout.
On the entertainment front, the weekend also sees the big opening of Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan. After the spectacular performance of his previous release Pathaan earlier this year, there are expectations that the new release will break opening day records and gross up to Rs 70 crore, but G20 restrictions could play spoilsport, with prestigious cinemas in the New Delhi area like Plaza, Odeon etc. and the PVR outlet in Chanakyapuri staying shut through the weekend.
Not everyone is losing out, though. Five-star hotels are charging all-time high rates during the G20, with rooms already earmarked and out of bounds for other clientele between Wednesday and Sunday in some 24 of the top notch hotels which will host the delegates to the conference. Presidential Suites are going at Rs 20 lakh a night, with VVIPs and top diplomats and journalists flying into the national capital for the event.
Weekend getaways and tour packages for leisure spots close to Delhi, like Mussoorie and Shimla are seeing huge interest, as many capital denizens plan to go out of the city to escape restrictions in shopping, entertainment and even e-commerce delivery during the extended weekend when offices are anyway shut. According to a leading travel portal, travel searches for going out of Delhi had increased nearly 40 per cent during this weekend.
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