Some Kolkata clubs to resume ops today, others to complete sanitisation, staff vaccination first

KOLKATA: The premier clubs of the city are all set to reopen their restaurants and bars, along with some sports activities, following the relaxation guidelines of the state government.
Tolly Club would be among the first to reopen its restaurants, bars and sports activities from June 16. Some other clubs too are reopening from Wednesday but others have decided to reopen after a few days after completing the sanitisation and vaccination of employees.

Calcutta Club is also reopening with sports activities and restaurant and bars, said chairman of food sub committee, Pradeep Neemani. Calcutta Rowing Club and Lake Club, though, will resume operation after a few days. New-age club Eastern Metropolitan Club is opening from Monday while Princeton will resume operations from June 16 itself. RCGC is reopening from June 16 but only with sports activities. Sources in Excise told TOI that as per the direction, the bars and restaurants here, too, can operate like bars and restaurants in malls and hotels from 12pm to 8pm.
CEO of Tolly Club, Anil Mukherjee said it is reopening from tomorrow with golf and tennis as per government directive. “We are also opening restaurants and bars as per state directive,” he added. RCGC is also planning to restart golf and other sports activities like tennis, table tennis, snooker, bowling along with others. “We will gradually restart all sports activities,” added Titoo Baweja, committee member of RCGC. But, he added that bars and restaurants will open after sometime. “Our problem is how the staff will come,” he added.
Secretary of Calcutta Rowing Club, Chandan Roychowdhury, said club bars and restaurants would open after taking all the precautions. “We have already vaccinated most of our staffrs and the remaining too will also be vaccinated. The members who will come have to be vaccinated,” he added. Joint secretary of Lake Club, Subrata Guha, said that it is opening restaurants and bars from Friday (June 18) after sanitisation activities. “All the staff members have already been vaccinated. The members who will come should be at least be vaccinated once,” he added. Secretary of Eastern Metropolitan Club, Sanjib Ghosh, said it would reopen next week. “We will complete our employees’ vaccination this week,” he added. Sanjay Karmakar, manager (operation) of Princeton Club said that it was reopening sports activities and bar-cum-restaurants from Wednesday. “We have already vaccinated our employees,” he added.
Incidentally, premier clubs of the city have started on-site vaccination for members and their extended families along with club employees for last few week. It was started by the likes of Tolly Club and later most of the leading clubs joined in this drive. They include Calcutta Rowing Club, Lake Club, ILSS, Eastern Metropolitan Club along with others.