Hoteliers have urged the State government to ensure that restaurants are allowed to function at night without restrictions.
“At present, though the government has issued an order stating that restaurants with more than 10 employees and proper licence can function 24x7, the police refuse us permission. They urge us to close after 11 p.m.,” said M. Ravi of the Chennai Hotels Association.
He said many people travel late at night or enter the city during the odd hours, and some like to have a cup of coffee or soup or light tiffin. In such cases, restaurants should be allowed to serve customers throughout the night.
However, some residents said that at night, traffic regulation was affected in some spots, such as Anna Salai, due to popular restaurants being open after 10 p.m. “Perhaps specific night-time traffic flow should be studied and managed for such spots. Traffic slows down only due to lack of parking lots. There are only two multi-level parking lots for the entire city. There is a delay in the city’s infrastructure catching up with its growth,” a retired planner said.
R. Rajkumar, of the Chennai Hotels Association, said the government should take steps to provide life-time food safety licence. “Earlier, it was for five years. It has been revised to one year now, and the formalities keep changing. We want a life-time certification with periodic checks. Also, the Corporation trade licence should be done away with since the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India already has a licence,” he said.
The association also sought power bills at Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises rates since restaurants were classified under that category.
