Restaurants and bars under the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) jurisdiction has started serving till 10 pm from Saturday after the civic body issued a revised circular on Friday night allowing increased business hours of restaurants and bars in the city. The Navi Mumbai Hotel Associations had requested the civic body to allow more business hours in order to get more customers.
Under the Mission Begin Again, the state government had allowed hotels, restaurants and bars to operate from 8 am to 7 pm with 50 per cent capacity.
Following state government’s decision, on September 30, the civic body issued a circular and allowed restaurants and bars to operate the business from 8 am and to 7 pm with 50 per cent capacity. However, representatives of Navi Mumbai Hotel Associations met the civic administration and requested to increase the business hours till 10 pm.
The association's member had claimed that they hardly get customers as they have to shut down the shops by 7 pm. They said that most of the families or customers come out of their homes after 8 pm to eat out. However, by then, their shops were already closed. Now, all hotels, food courts, restaurants and bars can operate from 8 am to 10 pm. However, there will be no business activity in containment zones until October 31.
However, the civic body has asked all restaurants and bars to maintain social distancing and there should not be gathering. As per the order, wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and occupancy should not be more than 50 percent of the total capacity.
