Hotel-mall and restaurant open locks

After being closed for 75 days, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and religious places will open in most parts of the country from Monday. However, it will be necessary to follow social distance and other rules. Religious sites will open in Unlock-1 but offerings will not be made in the temples and neither holy water will be sprinkled nor idols are allowed to be touched.

The number of people in hotels, restaurants and shopping malls will also be limited. Along with this, the air conditioner has to be kept at a temperature of 24 degrees and a sanitizer will have to be arranged at the entrance. But in recent days, due to the rapid increase in the case of Covid-19, religious bodies of many states have decided to keep the religious places closed at present, while their state governments have given permission to open them.

Restaurants and hotels will face a double challenge if they resume business. First, it will be difficult for them to get customers, while the challenge will be to get employees back to work. Most of the economic activity will start from Monday in almost all areas of the country except the Containment Zone. However, Chennai, Mumbai and Gurugram have decided to continue certain restrictions in view of the case of Covid-19. In some places, some shops are open on weekends but in most markets the number of people is very less.

Viren Shah of the Mumbai Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association said that they have demanded business hours from 11 am to 8 pm while 9 am to 5 pm is allowed. He said that 50 per cent of the shops are opening, gradually their number will increase.

Apart from this, where the government has given permission to work with 100 per cent employees, people may face problems in traveling to and from office due to restrictions on public transport. In West Bengal, the state government has allowed buses and cabs to run but suburban train services will remain closed. HM Cements Managing Director of Shree Cement said, "Until the transport services are fully restored, it will be difficult to ask employees to come to the office." In Kolkata, ITC, Shree Cement and other companies are encouraging employees to work from home. Amitabh Mukherjee, head of corporate human resources at ITC, said, "For the time being, the presence of employees in the office will remain limited and the only work that will not be done at home is in the office." Best buses and offices in Mumbai will start with 10 per cent employees. Best will run about 300 buses but not more than 29 passengers will be able to board a bus. Till now, BEST buses were being run only for employees associated with essential services. Malls, hotels and restaurants will not be opened in Mumbai this month, but 50 per cent markets and shops have been opened since Friday on an even-odd basis. JSW Group and AM / NS India (formerly Essar Steel) will start work from Monday with an attendance of 10 per cent. The group spokesperson said that the entire management of the JSW group, including managing director Sajjan Jindal, would come into office from Monday. AM / NS India said that important departments like marketing and sales will return to the office, while other departments will continue to work from home.