Bars and clubs back in business on MG Road after a ‘dry’ phase

KOCHI: Happy hours are back at hotels and clubs near MG Road which had gone dry for the past 10 days. The Supreme Court (SC) order on April 11 had put a temporary ban on serving beer and wine at major hotels and clubs on the stretch as the establishments were in the 500-m ambit of MG Road, which was considered as a state highway.
The Kerala bar hotels association had approached the Kerala high court for revoking the ban on the grounds that MG Road was maintained by the municipal corporation and was not a state highway.
“We produced documents to show that when the bypass came up, MG Road was handed over to municipal corporation for its upkeep and it was not a state highway anymore,’’ said a member of the association.
A number of hotels on MG Road was hit and incurred loss of lakhs of rupees due to this confusion in the wake of the SC order.
“We had stopped selling beer and wine for the past 10 days incurring a loss of around Rs 7 lakh. The business of many bar-attached hotels suffered as they lost out on a loyal set of clientele. The service staff of these hotels also faced a setback due to the shutdown. They had to cut down on their employees starting from kitchen staff to security,’’ said P Dinesh Babu, food and beverages manager of Hotel International.
Praveen Menon, former secretary of Rama Varma Club, said that employees who were working with the club for over 25 years were sent home and rendered jobless for 10 days.
“The ban also discouraged tourists from all over the country who are members and regular customers from visiting the club,” he said.
“There was a confusion regarding MG Road being a state highway or not, therefore we had to close our bar. We only reopened on receiving the court order. Over these days, we faced a 20% dip in the overall sales,” said K C James, general manager of Grand Hotel.