While the Haryana government has allowed the restaurants in the State to run dine-in services at half their capacity, a majority of them in the Millennium City remained shut on Monday due to reduced timings and restrictions on bars.
Also, some of them were either unaware of the directions or lacked clarity.
Most of the restaurants in DLF Cyber Hub and Sector 29, housing several hotels and restaurants in the city, remained shut.
Claiming that owners were set to lose more by opening restaurants, National Restaurant Association of India’s Gurugram chapter head Inderjeet Banga claimed that only around 10 % restaurants, mostly without bars, had opened. He said that with the bars remaining shut, most of the restaurants could not even reach the break-even point.
“Around 65 % of the business for restaurants comes from dinners. Since they are not allowed to operate after 8 p.m., that is gone. Similarly, running the restaurants at half the capacity will rob us of 50 % business during lunch,” said Mr. Banga. Besides, the restaurants running from the shopping malls were not allowed the dine-in, he said.
Seeking more pro-business guidelines from the government, Mr. Banga, who runs “Pirates of Grill” at a shopping mall on Mehrauli-Gurugram Road, said: “If we open, we will bleed to death. We prefer to remain shut and die. The landlords are also adamant on rentals.”
In Cyber Hub, only a couple of restaurants were open and those too were also allowing dine-in. Rakesh Kumar, a manager at Haldiram’s, said they were seeking clarification from the DLF management in view of the government directions on whether or not to allow dine-in. “Since Cyber Hub falls in the category of a shopping mall, we are not sure whether we can allow dine-in. But we have made all preparations. The capacity has been reduced from around a hundred to just 30,” said Mr. Kumar.
Bikanervala, a restaurant in Sector 29, allowed the dine-in and had a few customers as well. The restaurant’s manager Nitin said they expected a 10-15 % increase in footfall and had made arrangements to ensure social distancing.
