With the brand new curfew timings, from 8 pm to six am, coming into impact from Wednesday, lodges and eating places house owners in main cities of the state are apprehensive the prolonged curfew will rob them of essential “evening business hours” and power a number of the smaller gamers to close store.
“The food industry was just limping back after struggling with year-long restrictions on timings and social-distancing. Business was already bleak after the government imposed curfew from 9 pm to 6 am from the earlier 11 pm closure timings. With the new timings, we will have to shut our kitchens before 8 pm and this will deprive us of our crucial business hours. About 80 per cent of the restaurants do maximum business in the evening,” stated Narendra Somani, the president of Hotels and Restaurants’ Association (HRA-Gujarat).
There are about 10,000 eating places, lodges and meals parks in Ahmedabad alone. According to HRA-Gujarat there are about 50,000 meals shops within the organised area within the state.
“Last year, people were considerate and used to forgo rentals and went soft on salary cuts. But having battled a poor year, as far as earnings are concerned, now everyone’s finances are stretched thin and there will be more permanent closures in the business. The small players will not be able to survive as they won’t be able to repay loans, debts, salaries and other overheads with the reduced income,” Somani added.
Members from the business say they weren’t taken into confidence by the federal government earlier than curfew timings had been prolonged. The curfew timings from 12 am to six am had been prolonged by two hours (10 pm to six am) for 4 main cities on March 16. This was additional prolonged the identical week by an hour (9 pm to six am) in Ahmedabad.
All the most important cities of Gujarat, together with Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara, have streets or places that cater to meals aficionados.
In Surat, restaurant house owners — the place households troop out in massive numbers for a night snack or meal — really feel the meals and hospitality business is being made a “villain”. “The textile industry, diamond industry and others industries remain operational even at night. But we have to shut our business. Our industry is the one who had strictly followed the Covid-19 guidelines, but we are being seen villains,” stated Arun Shetty, president of Southern Gujarat Hotel and Restaurant Association.
“Had the government permitted take-aways, we would have survived. But total night curfew is difficult for us to survive. We have found that 50 per cent of our industry players had shut down their business as they cannot cope up to meet day to day expenses. We will make representations to the state government in coming days,” Shetty added.
According to the affiliation, there are 200 restaurant house owners who’re registered members of SGHRA, whereas there are over 2,000 others who function from momentary tents in open plots and roadside kiosks.
For many restaurant house owners in Vadodara, the one extra hour of curfew has come because the final straw. A preferred non-vegetarian night restaurant within the metropolis has determined to prepone its operations from 5 pm onwards. The proprietor says, “With the curfew beginning at 8 pm, even the delivery agents will pick and choose the orders. The food delivery app services have already mentioned that as we near closing hours, only orders above Rs 300 will be accepted. We have tried it today. The orders came in but obviously it was less than half the business we have seen on a regular day. For those coming in to pick their parcels, the minimum amount is not an issue. But dine-in will almost be negligible. We will see the sales over the next few days and decide if we should open all through the day until the curfew or remain completely closed.”Another proprietor Aftab Chakra of Millenium restaurant, one among Vadodara’s oldest, feels the most recent curbs shall be a “final nail in the coffin” for a number of lodges which have been struggling to fulfill ends. Chakra stated, “The restaurants had been operating under a lot of stress. Things were just beginning to pick up when the second wave struck. This time, those who were trying to keep afloat will not be able to sustain. Several hotels had already shut or handed over their franchise to new owners. It is usually after 8 pm that even take away orders pour in. No one will order at 6.30 pm, which will be almost the last that you can order because deliveries also take close to an hour.”Another proprietor of a well-liked cafe in Fatehgunj has been on the sting since Tuesday’s announcement of the curfew. The entrepreneur stated, “People are being cautious. Almost everyone you know has either got a family member or a neighbour down with Covid-19. The last two weeks have really seen a plunge in the dining, especially at cafes, where the meals are not seen as ‘cooked’. The new curfew hours and the unending pandemic will definitely hit hard. I tried convincing my family that I must give my cafe another chance after suffering terrible losses and paying heavy rent last year during the lockdown. This time, I can only wait for a week before taking a call.”
Restaurant house owners and hoteliers in Rajkot too expressed comparable views. “During summer, when days are long, people tend to have their evening meals late. Curfew from 8 pm means hardly anyone would come and dining in our restaurant as 8 pm is the time when people actually start streaming in,” Sandeep Patel, supervisor of Om Restaurant in Bhaktinagar Circle of Rajkot stated.
Meru Ahir, proprietor of Venu Restaurant, an eatery serving Gujarati meal on Kothariya Road of Rajkot metropolis stated the prolonged curfew hours would trigger lot of inconvenience to individuals planning to eat exterior. “While the government may have reasons to extend the curfew hours, what about workers and people who have to eat out due to nature of their work or job? Where will they go to have their meals in the evening,” stated Ahir.
Dilip Patel, president of Saurashtra-Kutch Hotel Association, an organisation of householders of lodges within the area stated, the federal government choice is a large setback to the hospitality business. “Hotel and restaurants had practically remained closed for three to four months last month due to lockdown. Barely had they started to get back on track, the government has advanced the curfew to 8 pm. This means people can’t dine in a hotel or restaurant as such establishments open at 7 pm and anyone would easily take an hour to have his meal. How would one go home after that?” Patel stated.