The State Government is mulling to merge the liquor policy and tourism policies as far as bars in the state are concerned. “We are contemplating to merge the two policies for bars as both have common interests,” said Excise Commissioner Srinivas Sri Naresh here on Monday.
There are about 770 bars in the State of which over 500 do not maintain the required standards. “We are drafting a stringent policy to improve the quality of bars,’’ Mr Naresh said, adding that the new policy for bars will be out in about three months.
He also pointed out that a framework for setting up micro-breweries is in the final stages. “We have identified Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Guntur as the cities to set up micro-breweries. Bangalore has 17 such kiosks and we may start with five at Visakhapatnam as a pilot project,” he said.
The micro-breweries will be automated kiosks that will serve different flavours of fresh beer.
Apart from the micro-breweries, the department is looking at setting up retail outlets at hybrid shopping malls. The department has already written to the Retailers Association of India to notify the hybrid malls with a minimum of 10,000 sq ft.
So far some six hybrid malls in the state, including three from Visakhapatnam have evinced interest, he told The Hindu.
