Residents say new liquor vends in Delhi ‘hard to find’

After feedback from people, the state excise department on Thursday uploaded the updated list of the new liquor vends in Delhi on its website along with their addresses. The list can be viewed on www.excise.delhi.gov.in by clicking the “liquor vends” option

Delhi has opened swanky liquor shops under its new excise policy, but several residents who were finding it difficult to locate these vends have suggested to the Delhi government that it should consider creating a “store locator” feature on the excise department’s website or launch a mobile application.

New liquor shops in the Delhi opened from November 16 last year. (HT Archive)

For Sumanth Kumar, a resident of Ashok Vihar, the go-to place to procure alcohol was a store located at the corner of the community centre in their block. But under the new regime, all old private liquor shops were shut from October 1 last year and new ones, mostly coming up at different locations, opened from November 16. Since then he has been unable to locate a liquor store, not just in his locality, but in the entire district.

After feedback from people, the state excise department on Thursday uploaded the updated list of the new liquor vends in Delhi on its website along with their addresses. The list can be viewed on www.excise.delhi.gov.in by clicking the “liquor vends” option. This will prompt the user to a new window where one should click on “license” and choose “private vend” in the drop down list. The list of all private vends will then appear, a senior excise official explained.

However, several users who tried to locate the stores on the website did not find it useful. “It is a very shoddily curated list. All the vends are not tagged with the districts in which they are located. Also, one has to keep clicking page after page. It is ancient. Nowadays, there are more user friendly ways such as geotagging the stores or creating a simple store locator. The Delhi government can surely make it happen. It is basic IT skill,” said Pritam Goswami, a resident of Mayur Vihar.

HT also used the portal and found that of the 11 districts in Delhi, the portal did not show any results for stores located in Southeast and Shahdara districts. The south-east district covers localities such as Jor Bagh, Lodhi Road, Khan Market, Sunder Nagar, Nizamuddin, Defence Colony, Lajpat Nagar, New Friends Colony, Nehru Place, Kalkaji, Chittaranjan Park, Govindpuri, Greater Kailash, Alaknanda to Jamia Nagar, Okhla, Sarita Vihar, Jaitpur and Badarpur.

Shahdara is a relatively smaller district covering areas such as Dilshad Garden, Tahirpur, Yamuna Vihar and others.

According to government records seen by HT, until Thursday, a total of 543 liquor shops out of a target of around 850 had begun retail sale of alcohol in Delhi. The new retail stores in Delhi no longer have the iron grilles, which earlier was a trademark of all government-run liquor vends in the Capital. The new stores allow buyers to browse and purchase the brands of their choice.

According to the benchmark laid by the new policy, shops are supposed to be spacious, well lit and air-conditioned to allow customers a walk-in experience under camera surveillance.

The new excise policy is aimed at revolutionising the consumer experience as stylish liquor stores will replace the government-run shops. Under the policy, new liquor vends will be set up in 32 zones across the city. Some liquor outlets will also have tasting facilities to enhance users’ experience.