Preparations underway to reopen a mall in Pune. (Express Photo by Pavan Khengre) After granting some major relaxations in Covid restrictions for Pune residents earlier this week, the municipal corporation has decided to act cautious and roll back some of them. The civic body on Friday announced that malls, salons, beauty parlours, spas, restaurants, bars and food courts will remain shut on weekends. Even non-essential shops will remain shut on weekends.
The PMC has also decided to continue with prohibitory orders restricting the gathering of five or more people. No free movement of public will be allowed without a valid reason after 10 pm.
Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar on Friday said the decision will be implemented with immediate effect till further orders in the jurisdictions of PMC, Pune Cantonment Board and Kirkee Cantonment Board.
“Essential category shops will be allowed to be open all days of the week till 7 pm. All other shops except those in the essential category, malls, salons, beauty parlours, spas and wellness centres, along with non-essential category shops, will not be allowed to operate on Saturdays and Sundays,” he said.
Restaurants, bars and food courts will remain closed for dine-in service on weekends but they can provide home delivery or parcel service till 11 pm. Dine-in facility will be allowed on weekdays till 10 pm, with only 50 per cent of total seating capacity.
On the basis of the five-level unlockdown plan announced by the Maharashtra government, the PMC had relaxed most of the restrictions in the city earlier this week, with the new norms being implemented from June 14. These new norms were supposed to be in place till June 20, and were to be revised every week based on the local Covid-19 situation.
As per the previous order, malls were allowed to open with 50 per cent capacity and operate till 7 pm on all days while restaurants, bars and food courts were allowed dine-in facility with 50 per cent sitting capacity till 10 pm on all days.
The PMC has, however, decided to continue with the other relaxations introduced from June 14, including allowing government and private offices to operate with 50 per cent staff attendance.
It will also allow libraries, coaching classes and training institutes to operate with 50 per cent capacity. Public bus service will also ply with 50 per cent sitting capacity and no standing passengers.
Public places such as gardens and grounds will be open from 5 am to 9 am and 4 pm to 7 pm every day. Outdoor sports will be allowed throughout the day while indoor games will be permitted from 5 am to 9 am and 5 pm to 7 pm.
Cultural, social and religious programmes will be allowed till 7 pm with a maximum of 50 people while weddings will be allowed with 50 people, cremations with 20 people and meetings with 50 per cent sitting capacity.
Construction activity and e-commerce services will continue. Export-oriented industrial units and essential goods units will operate with 50 per cent staff who will commute via office vehicles.
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