Starting this Friday, 5 city malls to adopt 24x7 policy

Starting this Friday, Mumbaiites will be able to visit their favourite malls in the city anytime, day or night as some of these properties have decided to stay open

Starting this Friday, Mumbaiites will be able to visit their favourite malls in the city anytime, day or night as some of these properties have decided to stay open 24x7. Five malls – Atria in Worli, Growel’s 101 in Kandivli, High Street Phoenix at Lower Parel, Phoenix Marketcity in Kurla, and R City in Ghatkopar – have intimated the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of their decision to keep running their eateries and other commercial outlets through the night, without serving any alcohol post 1.30am, as per the rules.

HT Image

Even though most malls have agreed to implement the plan only on weekends, some businesses are ensuring that at least one commercial outlet is open throughout the week. For instance, Atria Mall may have a couple of outlets running 24x7. “We plan to have the mall open from Friday onwards. It’s going to be implemented throughout the week and we have kept the option open to our tenants. Most of the restaurants have agreed to remain open till 4am every day. We are creating an awareness drive among visitors, stating that alcohol will not be served post 1.30am,” said Kunal Pradhan, owner of Atria Mall.

Senior civic officials said a few malls have approached them to implement the 24x7 plan from this weekend. “By the start of Friday, we are expecting more malls to show interest in implementing the policy by the weekend. Most importantly, the establishments will have to ensure self-regulation in regards to serving alcohol or any other violation since it will otherwise derail the whole plan and eventually hamper their business,” said a BMC official.

“Phoenix will certainly be part of the 24x7 plan and we are very thankful for this initiative by Mr Aaditya Thackeray. Starting this Friday, we expect a very positive response and our operations and marketing team are fully geared up for this initiative,” said Ameya Sakre, director of Phoenix Mills.

However, some malls are careful about implementing this policy and have decided to extend their deadline to 3am. “Food, beverages and entertainment outlets will be open till 3am for the trial run this weekend,” said Sachin Dhanawade, chief operating officer (COO), retail and real estate, Grauer & Weil (India) Ltd, which runs Growels 1010.

The decision to allow shopping malls, eateries, commercialised mills, and other such ‘gated communities’ to run 24x7, was made in a meeting last Thursday called by environment and tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray and attended by civic chief Parveen Pardeshi and commissioner of police Sanjay Barve.