People who party hard through the night till day will no more find ‘after parties’ at star hotels pubs in and around Hyderabad. The star hotels which have permission to serve liquor round the clock too have to end their parties by midnight (12 a.m.) on weekdays, or 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. To run a bar, one has to seek permission from Telangana Prohibition and Excise Department. Some licensees turn the bars into pubs. They have to shut down by 12 a.m. on weekdays. On the weekends, the closing time extends by an hour ( till 1 a.m.) Hotels which are four stars or above are permitted to take special permission to serve liquor round the clock.
Around 15 star hotels in and around Hyderabad have this permission. Some of them have dance floors or conduct parties. The department’s Commissioner Sarfaraz Ahmed has clarified that the 24 hours’ permission does not entitle the star hotels to conduct parties or events till 4 a.m. or farther, and only liquor can be served for 24 hours. The senior official added that the permissions are issued in the general interest of tourism. At least four star hotels which have the 24-hour permission have approached the Excise officials stating that they want to withdraw the permission. The number of guests still did not appreciate to the pre-COVID times yet. The usual bar licence costs around ₹ 40 lakh. To get the 24 hours’ permission, licensee has to pay 25% more, that is around ₹ 10 lakh. “By withdrawing the permission, they will be saving on the 25% extra fee. After withdrawing, they can run bars at regular timings of 12 a.m. or 1 a.m,” said an official.
