Drive away from 'high'way

Caught in a twister over the Supreme Court order banning liquor sales within 500m of highways, over 700 pubs, bars and other outlets in the city have been in deep shock.

Relief might be just round the corner, since the state is bound to denotify highway stretches within the city. But the issue has sparked a debate that goes beyond the business of alcohol.

True, the weekend crowds that thronged glitzy pubs and bars on Church Street, Brigade Road, parts of Indiranagar and Koramangala have disappeared. Business losses are mounting. Some outlets say their sales have crashed by up to 95%. Refashioning themselves as eateries has failed to beckon the crowds. Panic had set in before the recent apex court reprieve.

Reeling from last weekend’s losses, pub owners say the relief will not come in a hurry. The state excise department has already denotified state highways passing through cities and towns. But the Centre has to do so for national highways if the 98 outlets within Bengaluru’s central business district (CBD) are to benefit. Implication: A lot of paperwork.

Losses temporary

However, the pub owners and staff are now relieved because they know that losses are just temporary. The crowds will be back in a few weeks, if not in days. Employees are not worried about job losses either.
Indeed, revenues have hit rock bottom. Says Sudarshan Gouda, assistant manager of the pub Easy Tiger on Church Street: “Since July 1, our liquor sales have dipped by 95%. Weekends, we used to earn about Rs 1 lakh and around Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 on week days. We have been serving only burgers, pasta and mocktails.”

Hope remains

But Gouda is confident that the government will issue an order soon. “We are confident that things will work out in a week,” he says. The outlet has about 35 employees, none of whom are worried about losing their jobs. “That thought has not struck us yet,” says one of them, Vikram.

Is there another side to this ban? Yes, if the focus is on residents living in areas abutting the arterial roads passing close to Indiranagar and Koramangala. They say they have had a peaceful week. Since pubs on Indiranagar 100ft Road closer to Old Madras Road did not serve liquor, the noisy crowds and hordes of vehicles that would jam the roads before kept away.

Support for ban

In March, residents welfare associations in Indiranagar and HAL 2nd Stage had taken out a protest march, decrying the blatant commercialisation of their areas. They had drawn attention to the loud music blaring out of 'illegal' pubs, a weekly affair that denied them sleep. The drunken brawls, constant honking and screaming on the roads were clearly not to their liking. 

With no hope in sight, many pubs had considered shifting away from the arterial roads. This would have been welcomed by Indiranagar residents, seeking a return to their noiseless neighbourhoods of old. But shifting from traditional pub hubs such as Brigade Road and Church Street would make no business sense.

R K Mehra, owner of Alibi pub on Church Street, explains why shifting is out of question: “I have invested about Rs 1.5 crore on the interiors. We are middle category businessmen. I had to raise the entire amount through bank loans. It is impossible to re-do it elsewhere.”

Losses multiplied

Businesses on Church Street had already taken a beating due to the ongoing road upgrade work. “We were hoping to make it up once the street comes alive again. But the GST transition and now this has left us in a tight situation. My losses would be around Rs 10 lakh this month,” says Mehra.

Excise department officials, preferring anonymity, say the extensions of national highways could have been denotified long back. But the government chose not to do it. It should have been taken on priority since the anticipated revenues from excise is about Rs 18,000 crore for the financial year 2017-18.

Former additional commissioner of excise, H P Erappa feels liquor consumption is unlikely to come down despite the ban. “People have their own short-cut methods to get liquor, take the stock to their homes and consume. Bengaluru urban district alone has about 2,500 outlets whereas in places such as Mumbai, there are not more than 1,500,” Erappa points out.

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