Pune’s 7-day shutdown of malls, restaurants, bars to impact at least a fourth of Maharashtra’s hospitality business

Pune’s seven-day shut down of malls, restaurants and bars announced on Friday will impact at least 25% of Maharashtra’s overall hospitality industry’s sales, industry executives said. “Pune, with its young population,
is the second biggest market for hospitality in Maharashtra, after Mumbai. The impact on industry will be severe,” said Anurag Katriar, president of the National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI).

The Pune administration has called for malls, restaurants, bars, cinema halls and places of religion to remain closed for the next seven days. The administration has introduced these restrictions after more than 8,000 COVID-19 cases in the past two days. Home delivery of food, however, has been allowed to continue.


“A shutdown will not only curtail smooth operations, but will also deter genuine shoppers from visiting malls and also put into motion a spiralling effect on modern retail that could derail recovery of the segment,” said Rajendra Kalkar, President - west at The Phoenix Mills that operates several malls including Phoenix Marketcity in Pune.

Kalkar added the organised industry has already faced humongous financial losses incurred through the last year. “Even now, we are nowhere close to recovering the losses imposed by the pandemic. We urge the state government to consider normalised operations of shopping centres and malls,” he said.

A day earlier, Retailers Association of India (RAI) issued a statement that curbs such as weekend lockdowns, night curfews and random testing being imposed in cities are causing hurdles for the retail sector. “Retailers Association of India believes that there is a need for a coordinated effort at handling the second wave of the pandemic, rather than creating diverse restrictions at the local level such as local weekend lockdowns, shutdown at 8 pm, and arbitrary testing inside malls, among others," RAI said in the statement.

Hospitality industry groups representing thousands of restaurants and bars have written to the Maharashtra government earlier this week, seeking waiver of advance license fees and property tax and relaxation of curfew timings in the state, stating that curfew of 8 pm onwards, which contributes over 70% to overall business, has brought sales to a standstill. Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), NRAI and Multiplex Association of India are among the trade bodies that have written to the state government on the matter.