Aerocity braces, rest of city yet to see dip in footfall

Restaurants, hotels wait to see how customers will react

Bad for business: Hotels in Aerocity, located right next to NH-8, will be adversely affected by the Supreme Court order.

Many hotels and restaurants in Delhi claimed to be unaffected by the Supreme Court ban on sale of liquor along highways across the country, which came into effect on Saturday.

“Friday and Saturday nights are the busiest with heavy bookings. We, however, haven’t seen any major slump in footfall because of the ban. Also, the bookings are less because of the ongoing Navratras,” said a representative from Junkyard Café in Connaught Place (CP).

Admitting that establishments near the highway and airports would definitely see a dip in business, a representative from Aqua, The Park (CP), said: “It’s too earlier to say if Delhi will benefit. We aren’t seeing a lot of rush and can’t predict how customers will react to this new rule.”

The Aerocity, which is a stone’s throw away from the Indira Gandhi International Airport here, houses 10 hotels that will be adversely impacted.

“We are anticipating a 40% dip in sales at Aerocity hotels. We feel that the government hasn’t thought this decision through,” said a senior official from a hotel in the area.

Over 4,000 accidents

The Supreme Court, in its order on December 15 last year, had noted: “The expressways witnessed 4,208 accident cases, 4,229 injured and 1,802 deaths. Figures are also available for the distribution of road accidents because of various causes during 2014. About 1,38,000 persons were injured in accidents involving dangerous or careless driving and 42,127 deaths occurred.”

“Injuries caused in accidents due to speeding stood at 1.81 lakh, while there were 48,654 deaths. As many as 7,307 accident cases involving driving under the influence of drugs/alcohol were registered, resulting in 7,398 injuries and 2,591 deaths,” the apex court had noted.