Mumbai Malls, Pubs to remain open 24/7 from January 27th in some Mumba areas.
It comes as good news that the Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Friday said that all shops, restaurants, malls and pubs will remain open for 24 hours on an experimental basis in a few areas of Mumbai like from January 27.
Establishments those which will remain open all night are Fort and Kala Ghoda in south Mumbai and Bandra Kurla Complex in the west.
In fact, Thackeray had batted for all-night-open eateries and other establishments in the city during the earlier BJP-Shiv Sena regime too.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Mumbai Police have agreed to allow establishments inside ‘gated communities’ and non-residential areas to remain open through the night.
Gated communities typically refer to places that have adequate parking facilities, security arrangements, CCTV surveillance, noise regulation, etc.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Mumbai Police have granted permission to more than 20 such establishments that can now remain open throughout.The state government held a meeting on Thursday to provide a stamp of authority on the proposal.
The owners as per their business benefit plan can decide to remain open throughout or choose Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Atria Mall (Worli), R-City Mall (Ghatkopar), Oberoi Mall (Goregaon), Growel’s 101 (Kandivli), Phoenix Market City (Kurla) and High Street Phoenix (Lower Parel) are some of The Malls who ave reportedly agreed to start 24/7 Operations Soon.
The Proposal to allow Restaurants and Shops to Remain Open 24 hours was first mooted by Shiv Sena in 2013. However, it was put on the back burner after it faced opposition from several quarters.
Later, in January 2018, the state government issued a notification amending the Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act, allowing shops, malls, restaurants that do not serve alcohol to operate all night.
Even then, the plan never saw the light of day as police raised security concerns.
Finally, in December 2019, after the Uddhav Thackeray-led government came to power in the state, both BMC and Police chiefs met to discuss the finer points. Shortly after, they met and briefed CM Thackeray, who supposedly gave an in-principle nod to the move.
However, the authorities should give a thought to two important things that seemed to have escaped their mind. One is there ought to be police personnel on the roads to safeguard people moving on the road at night. This is because there would be chances of all kinds of crime happening. Secondly and more importantly, the railways and BEST buses have to run all throughout the night to make it easier to move from this place to the other.
According to some activists, it is not right to resist sleep a great deal and stay up late often. Resisting and avoiding sleep will lead to other problems such as bad moods, confuse thinking, and exhaustion that prevents one from understanding and working properly, and it can lead to many fatal illnesses.
News Edit by: K.V.Raman
