The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is likely to permit takeaways of food from commercial establishments in malls located in various parts of the city.
Following a representation from the companies managing the malls, GCC Commissioner G. Prakash has directed Revenue and Finance Department officials to assess the challenges in permitting takeaways from commercial establishments in the malls during the pandemic. GCC Health Department officials are expected to study public health issues.
“The government has to take the final decision. But we are preparing for permitting takeaways from malls,” said an official.
According to GCC officials, major malls are in at least 10 locations, including Velachery, Royapettah, Mylapore, Egmore and Vadapalani. “Many malls have more than 200 commercial establishments. The footfall in major malls is more than 5,000. The malls were closed during the pandemic because of the risk posed by crowding. Now the situation is changing and COVID-19 cases have not been traced to any major commercial areas in the past few days,” said an official.
GCC has permitted over 1.5 lakh commercial establishments in the 15 city zones to operate with the maximum of five customers on the premises at a time. It has restricted the number of workers in each establishment to 75% of its workforce.
The city has more than 12 lakh property tax assessees and 30% of them are owners of commercial units. The restrictions on economic activity have led to a reduction in property tax collection. Before the pandemic, GCC used to collect ₹3 crore-₹5 crore in property tax every day. The collection has now come down to ₹50 lakh-₹1 crore every day, officials said.
GCC has found an increase in COVID-19 cases in zones such as Ambattur and Anna Nagar. At least 12 zones have reported a decrease in the number of cases.
