Reportedly the restaurant business in Uttar Pradesh incurred a loss of Rs 100 crore on a daily basis during the first three phases of nationwide lockdown between march 25 and May 17. Even as the government has now allowed the restaurants to deliver food online, but with the business restricted to home delivery, lack of workforce and unavailability of meat the industry continues to slump with no early signs of revival. By the current trend, 40 per cent of the restaurants are likely to wind up operations by year-end.

 

Uttam Kashyap, who owns two non-vegetarian restaurants, in lucknow, is unable to resume business again as most of his staff have returned to their native places due to the lockdown and by restricting menu only to the vegetarian items, he will not be able to earn the daily expenses. He said, "The losses incurred due to the lockdown are huge and the survival looks very difficult in the future. At both my restaurants, I had a staff of over 25 people but now only four or five workers are left. "Most of the workers were from Malda district in West bengal and they have returned to their native place. I am finding it difficult to even pay a salary to the remaining staff because there was no business for two months. Now we can deliver online but my restaurants are famous only for non-vegetarian food but it cannot be made available because the meat shops are shut. Therefore, I will not open my eating points till there is a ban on meat sales". 

 

Arun Ahuja, manager of the famous Royal Cafe in lucknow, said, "We have three restaurants in lucknow with a staff of over 50 people. More than 50 per cent of the workforce has returned to their home districts because they were finding it difficult to survive in the lockdown and it if difficult to say when they will return. If I talk about our Hazratganj outlet, we used to sell food items worth more than Rs 1 lakh every day. Most of the people used to come to relish our chaat. For two months, there was no work and we could only give a salary till march despite no business to our workers."

మరింత సమాచారం తెలుసుకోండి: