BHUBANESWAR: The night curfew imposed by the State government to prevent large gathering and get-togethers on Thursday poured cold water on New Year eve celebrations and affected business of a large number of restaurants across the city.
Many people had to scrap their house party plans, while hotel and restaurants were also forced to cancel their pre-bookings as the curfew, announced all of a sudden on the day, came into force at 10 pm.
The prohibitory order was clamped between 10 pm on Thursday and 5 am on Friday across the State in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“As gatherings for New Year celebrations had already been banned in city hotels, pubs and restaurants due to Covid-19 pandemic, I had planned a house party in my friends circle. I was forced to cancel it as my guests would have faced problem during their return in the night due to the curfew,” said Mahesh Patra, a techie living in Patia.
Like Mahesh, the night curfew also spoiled house parties of many individuals and families. Some even expressed disappointment as all their preparations went in vain, while food prepared or ordered went waste. The curfew also put a dent on the sales and business of hotels and restaurants as they had to down their shutters by 10 pm on the special night.
“After sustaining losses for months due to Covid-19 lockdown, we had expected good business in the week between Christmas and New Year. The Covid restrictions and curfew, however, came as a huge blow,” said Himanshu Das, owner of a restaurant.
Das said the business on New Year eve alone touches Rs one lakh but the restriction and curfew caused him to loss a business of around Rs 50,000 on the day. “We had received a good number of orders and purchased raw materials of around Rs 20,000,” he said and added that, “Six pre-bookings for dining at the restaurants were also cancelled,” he said.
The curfew also hit business of roadside eateries and food joints. Some major online food aggregators, on the other hand, fixed cap on minimum order and requested customers to go for pre-order in the evening for timely delivery.