Places of worship, hotels, restaurants and malls to reopen from Monday

Much of India on Monday will have hotels, restaurants, malls, and places of worship reopening after 75 days of lockdown, but amid observing social-distancing norms and a palpable sense of nervousness about the challenges ahead.

‘Unlock 1’, as the government has called it, will see places of worship open with precautions such as no edible offering, and no sprinkling of holy water or touching

of idols or holy books.

Hotels, restaurants, and malls will reopen with limits on footfalls and occupancy. These will also need to follow guidelines such as keeping air-conditioning at 24°C and keep hand sanitizers at entrances.

However, malls will remain shut until June 30 in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Meghalaya, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, and Haryana’s Gurugram and Faridabad.

The spike in Covid-19 infections in recent days has unnerved religious bodies in several states into keeping places of worship shut for the present despite their respective state governments allowing them to reopen.

Similarly, restaurateurs and hotels are faced with twin challenges. If finding customers and guests proves difficult, getting their workforce back is an equally tough predicament.

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On Monday, most economic activities are set to reopen outside containment zones in the country’s big urban centres, including Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

However, Chennai, Mumbai, and Gurugram will continue to have restrictions in view of mounting cases of Covid-19. Even where shops have opened, like in Delhi and Mumbai, footfalls of customers are low and most markets were deserted over the weekend.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced reopening restaurants, malls, and places of worship from Monday. Hotels and banquet halls will remain shut. He said the government planned to use these to quarantine patients.

Delhi is likely to see at least 100,000 Covid-19 cases by the end of the month.

Delhi has also decided to open its borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. In neighbouring Haryana, restrictions will continue on hotels, restaurants, and places of worship in Faridabad, apart from Gurugram, because of the high number of cases.

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Viren Shah of Mumbai’s Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association said the organisation sought a change in business hours to 11 am-8 pm (instead of 9 am-5 pm) because this would generate more business. He said only 50 per cent shops had opened and business was gradually picking up. There is still confusion regarding opening on alternate days because there is no proper information to shops, he said.

Even where states have allowed private offices and business to work with all workers, restrictions on public transport could affect the movement of people and attendance at offices.

West Bengal has allowed buses and cabs to operate, but metro and suburban train services remain shut.

“Unless transport conditions ease, it is extremely difficult for us to ask employees to come to office,” said H M Bangur, managing director, Shree Cement.

In Kolkata, ITC, Shree Cement, and other offices are promoting work from home. “As of now, the presence in offices continues to be restricted to only where work from home cannot be performed,” said Amitav Mukherjee, head of corporate human resources, ITC.

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In Mumbai, BEST’s public bus service and offices with 10 per cent staff limit will resume. Around 300 buses will operate, but only 29 passengers, including five standing, will be allowed in 54-seater buses. Until now, BEST was operating buses only for essential services employees.

Among corporate houses, JSW Group and AM/NS India (formerly Essar Steel) will start functioning with 10 per cent of their workers from Monday, the companies said.

The JSW group’s management staff, including Managing Director Sajjan Jindal, will report for work from Monday, a spokesperson said.

AM/NS India said only key departments like marketing would report for work and all others would continue operate from home.

In West Bengal, religious bodies have decided to keep important religious places shut till June 15.

In Goa, churches and mosques have decided to remain shut. In Uttarakhand, the Badrinath temple will open its gates on Monday but has asked the state to keep the yatra suspended till June 30.

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The Jammu & Kashmir administration on Sunday ordered places of worship to remain shut for the time being.

In Odisha, hoteliers said they would reopen but had no bookings from corporate guests or leisure travellers. The state has restricted hotel occupancy at 30 per cent.

“At 30 per cent capacity, no hotel can be profitable. At least 60 per cent is needed to achieve break even. This is only a symbolic opening as we have no bookings from corporate clients or leisure travellers. We would be keen to offer our rooms for paid quarantine,” said J K Mohanty, chairman (eastern region) of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).

The other concern, said Mohanty, is that employees have returned to their native places. “Wooing them again is a challenge,” said Mohanty, who owns the Swosti group of hotels.

Odisha has allowed hotels to reopen but malls and places of worship will remain shut till June 30. It has declared a lockdown on weekends in 11 out of 30 districts.

Ramesh Mahapatra, president of the Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said closure on weekends had added to industry’s hardship.

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In Tamil Nadu, economic activities would start on Monday except in Chennai and its three neighbouring districts of Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur, and Chengalpattu. However, religious places will remain shut till the end of the month.

For restaurants in the state, the lack of availability of workers is a problem, with migrant workers returning home.

In Uttar Pradesh, traders and franchisees in some cities have said they will keep their shutters down unless mall managements reduce rentals. There are about 150 malls in 30 cities and towns in UP. Traders want a rent waiver for three months of the lockdown and reduction for the next 12 months, UP Adarsh Vyapar Mandal state President Sanjay Gupta said.

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With inputs from Aneesh Phadnis, Aditi Divekar, Giressh Babu, TE Narasimhan, Avishek Rakshit, Jayajit Dash, Virendra Singh Rawat, Dasarath Reddy Bhuswam and Archis Mohan