Noida: Restaurants seek weekend relaxations, write to CM

Noida: The restaurant owners in the city have asked the Uttar Pradesh government for allowing them to open their establishments on weekends

Noida: The restaurant owners in the city have asked the Uttar Pradesh government for allowing them to open their establishments on weekends.

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Varun Khera, head of the National Restaurants Association of India (Noida chapter), said that he has written to the UP chief minister in this regard. “Under the new guidelines, restaurants are still not permitted operations on weekends. However, with the decline in Covid numbers and improvement in overall situation, we humbly request you to consider permitting the opening of restaurants on weekends as well,” states the letter signed by Khera.

After a gap of 50 days, shopping malls and restaurants in Gautam Budh Nagar had been allowed to reopen from June 21 with 50% capacity. However, they were asked to operate their businesses from Monday to Friday between 7am and 9pm.

As per Khera, while it has been almost two weeks since the restaurants and eateries in GB Nagar reopened, the business has not picked up. “We are still running in losses. Weekend crowd is a major revenue source for any restaurant. If we are allowed to operate on weekends at 50% capacity, it will be a big respite for the hospitality industry. In GB Nagar, there are at least 200 restaurants and eateries that are struggling to survive. We hope our request can be considered,” he said.

Vicky Saluja, who runs a restaurant-cum-bar in Sector 18, said that the restaurants were expecting that relaxations would be given from July 1. “I had not reopened my establishment on June 21, as I was waiting for complete restrictions to be lifted. I was hoping that the weekend curfew will be removed by July 1 as cases have gone down. However, since no such announcement has been made, we are disappointed. But I will be reopening my restaurant on Monday,” said Saluja.

District excise officer Rakesh Bahadur Singh said that bars in GB Nagar are allowed to operate from 10am till 9pm on weekdays.

GB Nagar district magistrate Suhas LY said that the decision to allow operations of restaurants on weekends lies with the government. “Presently, the weekend curfew stands as it is. I am aware that a request has been made by NRAI to the chief minister regarding it,” said Suhas.