``Rajouri Garden has a high footfall profile and the people living in and around the area have a high purchase capacity. But the potential of this market has remained largely untapped with few retail commercial complexes that can cater to MNC retailers who look for huge floor areas,''says Amit Puri, Director, Chesterton Meghraj, Delhi.

During the peak hour, Rajouri Garden had a footfall of 1,385 and 200 during the non peak hour. ``The reading for the footfall here is much lower than an area like Basant Lok, which has a high non-peak hour footfall, but the people visiting Rajouri Garden market are real shoppers,'' says Puri. Basant Lok has a footfall of 1,723 during the peak hours while during thenon-peak hours it was 1,191. ``Though the difference during the peak and non-peak hours are minimal, this market caters mainly to the college crowd because of its eating joints and cinema,'' says Puri. In fact, he says, except for the food outlets and the cinema, other retail shops have not had very high sale compared with something located in Karol Bagh or South Extension.

Connaught Place too has the same problem as Basant Lok. While the footfall rate near Pizza Hut was 2,152 during the peak hour and 1,311 during the non- peak hour, the high footfall has been attributed to the office goers who do a lot of window shopping. The biggest let down has been Greater Kailash market which has a low footfall rate of 600 even during the peak hour, says Puri.

This is the first time a footfall survey is being done in an Indian city. Chesterton Meghraj's German counterpart Chesterton Blumenauer Biswanger, recently surveyed 40 cities worldwide with an Indian city being included for the first time. Footfall survey are asimple counting of the number of people crossing a particular point in a given time interval. In a retail location, footfall signifies the number of pedestrians in an appointed shopping street during a particular period. The two timings chosen for this footfall survey were 3 pm to 4 pm as the non-peak hour and 6 pm to 7 pm as the peak hour.

According to the survey, Karol Bagh and Lajpat Nagar have come out tops compared with South Extension or Connaught Place as a shopping area. The footfall in Karol Bagh, near Nirula's, has a high of 2,650 and a low of 1,780, with a high percentage of the people being shoppers and not window watchers, says Puri. ``Both Lajapt Nagar and Karol Bagh have a parking and congestion problems that residents of Kirti Nagar, Moti Bagh, Punjabi Bagh, and other West Delhi colonies with high purchasing power go to Connaught Place or South Extension,''says Puri. He points out that several financing companies, who are Chesterton's clients, have demanded space in West Delhi as the highesthire purchase of consumer goods like TVs, refrigerators, music systems and washing machines are done by West Delhi residents. But commercial land may be a problem in a area like Rajouri Garden, which is primarily residential. ``There are a lot of industrial plots available but no commercial property,'' says Puri.

Stand-alone shopping areas like the upcoming Ansal's Plaza on Siri Fort Road will have a more difficult time to attract customers and a high footfall rate unless they have cultural shows which can draw crowds, says Puri. ``The complex has two theaters and should be holding several cultural shows to draw the crowds,'' he says. One such complex in Mumbai has been a success, he says, as the builders included a bowling alley and other such leisure entertainment programmes along with the retail commercial space.

The footfall survey gains significance in Delhi as many of the big stores are trying to find space in Delhi like Music World, Food World, Akbarallys, Vitan, Kemp, Planet M, who are looking forretail space, says Puri. ``Accurate footfall figures will help these companies locate their showrooms at the best possible locations,'' says Puri.