Pune hoteliers miffed at night curfew timings; want it to start at midnight

The Hotel and Restaurants Association of Western India, had last week demanded an extension of hotel timings till 1.30 am

After the state government, on Monday, announced a night curfew from December 22 onwards, the hoteliers’ association is upset with the decision.

The hoteliers’ association is upset with the decision of night curfew. (HT FILE)

“Already our business was down for more than six months and had somewhat started gaining momentum. And suddenly yesterday, this order came, of a night curfew from 11 pm to 6 am. This will certainly affect our business by 15 per cent. So far, we were able to recover by 40 per cent of pre-Covid business. Now, it will again go down and especially during Christmas and the year-end time, when mostly people are out till late celebrating,” said Ganesh Shetty, president, Pune Restaurants and Hoteliers Association.

“Now our demand is that if they want to have night curfew it’s fine, but at least change the timings. It should start from 12 midnight, to 6 am, so atleast we can do some business. We are now going to send our demand letter to the chief minister, Pune city municipal commissioner and Pune police commissioner. Already, we close our hotels by 11.30 pm daily, as per government norms, and it takes half- an-hour to wind up the things and customers take time to reach home,” Shetty added.

Meanwhile, the Hotel and Restaurants Association of Western India, had last week demanded an extension of hotel timings till 1.30 am. “The hotel and restaurants business has started to gain some business, but going forward, extension of time is needed. Customers usually come after 9 pm for dinner and closing down immediately in the next couple of hours is not serving any purpose. Also, if time is extended, then social distancing will be improved as people will come in at different timings,” said association president Sherry Bhatia.

On other hand, traders in Pune are not complaining. Fatechand Ranka, president,

Federation of Traders Association of Pune (FTAP) said, “There is not such impact on traders and shop owners in Pune due to night curfew. All our shops close down by 9 pm. There won’t be any problem for us.”

Bhushan Mane, owner of a restaurant on Sinhagad road said, “I started a month back and was looking forward to doing good business during Christmas and the year end. I had purchased more goods and hired four people extra looking at the response which we get during the night time. Now if we have to close early by 10pm or 10.30pm, it takes half hour to clean and wind up, so there won’t be any business. State government has to rethink this decision and start the curfew at 12 midnight.”