Tourists spots outside Pune limits in demand for bookings due to night curfew

“We have booked a resort in Lonavla for the weekend starting from December 25 to 27. As we cannot celebrate Christmas with the family this year because of the night curfew, plan is to go out of Pune,” said Sandeep Ovhal, an IT engineer from Hadapsar

With seven-hour night curfew in place across municipal corporation areas till January 6, Punekars are making plans at various tourist spots across the district for the New Year celebrations. Lonavla and Mulshi within the district, and Mahabaleshwar and Konkan are their top destinations.

Tourists in Mahabaleshwar, India, on Wednesday, December 23, 2020. (Vilas Kale)

“We have booked a resort in Lonavla for the weekend starting from December 25 to 27. As we cannot celebrate Christmas with the family this year because of the night curfew, plan is to go out of Pune,” said Sandeep Ovhal, an IT engineer from Hadapsar.

Rohit Mehta and his friends plan to travel to Mahabaleshwar for the year-end. “For the last eight months, we are at home studying for our exams and other entrance tests. Now we want to celebrate the New Year and forget all the tensions due to Covid-19 pandemic as we have already suffered a lot. We have booked a studio apartment for four days at Mahabaleshwar. We college friends are going to enjoy as there won’t be any restrictions of night curfew and other rules on our celebrations.”

Pune district collector Rajesh Deshmukh had said that considering the possibility that revellers may attend parties outside municipal limits, the administration will take appropriate steps. “We have considered all these aspects and necessary steps will be taken. We also discussed the issue on Tuesday during a video conferencing with the chief minister,” said Deshmukh.

Ashok Chaudhary, a tourist hotel owner in Lonavla, said, “We are getting many enquiries daily from Pune and Mumbai for bookings during Christmas and year- end days. Half of our rooms are already booked for the season like other hotels and resorts in the hill station. Tourists won’t be able to go out in the night for celebrations if the night curfew is imposed in Lonavla.”

Pune district collector Rajesh Deshmukh said, “I already had meeting with senior police officials from Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad areas and today again we met with the task force team. We are thinking about extending night curfew to tourist places in the district, but a decision is yet to be taken.”