Restaurants in Coimbatore district will re-open on Monday after two months as the State government has relaxed the lockdown restrictions. However, the opening will be in phases at most of the restaurants, say hoteliers.
Many of the workers returned to their home States/districts when the lockdown was announced. They need to return to work and are expected to come by the end of next week. Currently, in most of the hotels, just 25 % of workers are available, they say.
Since the hotels were permitted to serve only parcel orders, most of the workers in the serving section had gone home. They need to get confident that they will have work if they come back. It will take some time, says Jegan S Damodarasamy, Executive Director at Sree Annapoorna and Sree Gowrishankar Group, Coimbatore.
Even when the hotels re-open, the hoteliers are unsure of how the response will be as the second wave of the pandemic has instilled fear among the public, he says.
In the last 18 months, hotels in the district have remained shut for a specific periods because of lockdown restrictions, have operated without air-condition service, and for sometime only with 50 % occupancy. All these have impacted the hotels and restaurants. They need to continue to meet the fixed costs such as rent, wages, and bank payments. “We need support from the governments to manage the current crisis. Apart from these, there is uncertainty and fear of a third wave of COBID-19. Hence, survival of the hotels itself has become a question mark for many,” adds M. Sivakumar, secretary of Coimbatore Hoteliers’ Association.
Meanwhile, the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore, has welcomed the decision of the State government to permit hotels, tea shops and bakeries to function from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Chamber also welcomed cancellation of e-pass for inter-district travel and resumption of public transport services.
