Vijayawada: Lockdown hits supply of mobile accessories

Vijayawada: Covid-19 lockdown badly affected the supply of spare parts of mobile phones and the livelihood of technicians and traders, who depend on the sale of accessories. Mobile users are suffering hardships due to non-availability of spares. More than 300 shops sell the accessories in the city.

Customers from not only Vijayawada but also from many parts of Krishna, Guntur and West Godavari districts come to Vijayawada for the repair of mobiles. Mobile business is one of the important business in the city with turnover of crores of rupees every day and provides livelihood to hundreds of traders, technicians and workers.

Now, due to lockdown the supply of displays, screens, batteries, speaker, circuit board and other accessories halted for more than 70 days. Indian mobile market is heavily dependent on China, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and other countries for the imports.

K Sudheer, a mobile technician in Besant road said due to lockdown he lost the livelihood for many weeks. Now, the government has started 'Unlock 1.0' and given permission to open the shops. But, non-availability of accessories badly affected his income.

Like Sudheer, hundreds of technicians in the city are losing their livelihood. The municipal corporation is giving only three hours permission to open shops at NTR complex in Governorpet (from 6 am to 9 am) due to the restrictions imposed in 42 municipal divisions in the city.

Many customers are suffering due to damage of their mobiles. They have to wait two or three months to get the mobile accessories to get their phone repaired. The income levels and purchasing power of many people are coming down due to lockdown for more than 70 days. Many customers, whose handsets damaged are in dilemma to repair the existing phone or to buy new phones. Smart phones cost between Rs 15,000 to Rs 50,000 depending on the features, brand image and quality.

On the other hand, very few traders are controlling the accessories market. They have choice to sell the spares at exorbitant prices. Most of the accessories are imported from China and local production is very less. So, the customers have left with two options-- either to wait some weeks or months to repair their phone or to buy a new phone. Technicians and traders too are eagerly waiting for the supply of accessories as early as possible.