Bengaluru in high spirits after alcohol sales resume

Bengaluru: Long queues of people to buy their favourite brands of alcohol marked the first day of largely restriction-free Bengaluru as India’s technology capital began to swing back to life after 40 days of stringent lockdown.

The police facilitated free movement of traffic by opening some of the flyovers at busy junctions. Standalone shops went about their usual business and city roads were taken over by private cars and two wheelers, even as public transport was still off.

A sustained drop in the number of Covid-19 cases in Bengaluru emboldened the authorities to some extent to expand the list of exemptions. The government, however, did not allow any business activity or movement of vehicles in the containment zones of the city.


Industries engaged in the production of essential items in and around Bengaluru functioned with limited number of attendance. The industries department asked companies engaged in permitted activities, such as IT/ITES, data centre, telecom and Internet services to submit a form declaring that they would abide by the Covid-19 protocol and resume operations.