Almost a week after Delhi restaurants and bars were shut for dining-in as per DDMA guidelines, footfall in Gurgaon and Noida restaurants have also seen a massive decline and delivery orders are low across NCR. Last Monday, Delhi LG Anil Baijal tweeted that “given the increase in positive cases, it was decided to close the restaurants and bars and to allow takeaway facility only.” While in Gurgaon and Noida restaurants are open for dine-in with restricted timelines (Gurgaon till 11pm and Noida till 10pm) and 50% seating capacity, the complete shutdown of dine-in at Delhi restaurants has impacted businesses adversely in neighbouring cities of NCR as well. “As has happened in the past, we all were hoping that business in Gurgaon and Noida will improve as Delhi restaurants are shut for dine-in. But that hasn’t happened this time. The reasons are restrictions on dining hours in Gurgaon and Noida and weekend curfew – most people would drive down from Delhi to neighbouring cities on weekends for dining and that is not happening now. It is a very disappointing situation,” says restaurateur and Noida chapter head of National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) Varun Khera, who has outlets in both Delhi and Noida.
‘Almost 30% fall in delivery numbers across NCR’
In the pandemic, whenever restaurants were closed for dine-in and were only offering takeaways and home deliveries, the number of orders were usually sufficient for businesses to stay afloat and run their kitchens with skeletal staff. But in the last one week, even the delivery orders have seen a huge slump, which is worrying restaurateurs. “We don’t know what the reason is for the low number of delivery orders this time, but there has been a sharp decline. Just delivery and takeaway won’t help us sustain businesses in the long run, so we are just hoping that restrictions are lifted soon,” says restaurateur Saurabh Khanijo. Varun Khera adds that there has been “almost 30% decline in the number of food delivery orders from December last week till now.” Restaurateur Vikrant Batra adds, “I am doing delivery service from some of my outlets only to minimize losses. It is not possible to keep the kitchen running at all outlets and incur costs when delivery numbers are not very high across NCR. Also, if we keep all outlets open for delivery and do not get enough orders, we have a lot of perishables and that adds to our losses.”
‘No dine-in and weekend curfew in Delhi is affecting Gurgaon and Noida footfall too’
In Delhi, many restaurants do not do takeaways or delivery and have decided to remain completely shut amid dine-in restrictions. But in Gurgaon, where restaurants are allowed to be open for dining-in with time and capacity restrictions, several restaurants have temporarily shut down due to lack of customers. “I know of so many outlets at Gurgaon hubs like Sector 29 that have decided to remain shut temporarily because there is no footfall. When it was announced that dine-in will be shut in Delhi, even I had moved staff and resources from Delhi outlets to Gurgaon and Noida outlets, hoping that footfall would increase there, but that didn’t happen, so we had to send most of the staff on leave. I think after Delhi restaurants were shut for dining, people got scared to dine out in Gurgaon and Noida too,” says restaurateur Varun Puri. Restaurateur Umang Tewari says that time restrictions in Gurgaon and Noida is also deterrent for people who would otherwise drive to the neighbouring cities from Delhi for dining. “No one wants to spend an hour driving to be at the restaurant for just an hour or so. On weekends too, people can’t step out. So, businesses in Noida and Gurgaon are suffering as well,” says Umang.
Even though dine-in is allowed in Gurgaon and Noida, various COVID restrictions have limited the footfall (picture for representational purposes only)
‘Survival will be impossible for businesses if restrictions continue for long’
Restaurateurs say that businesses across NCR have been impacted and many outlets might face permanent closure if restrictions continue for long. “Restaurants are always the first to be shut during COVID restrictions and last to open. It is becoming very difficult for us to run businesses when we are allowed to stay open for just a few months at a stretch,” says Umang Tewari. Kabir Suri, restaurateur and president, National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), had earlier said in a statement, “Right from the onset of COVID, the food and beverage industry has been one of the worst-hit. We somehow survived so far, but with the new guidelines in Delhi, it seems highly unlikely that we can sustain any longer. We were shut for most of last year. We have been operating at 50 per cent capacity and restricted hours since then. We had just started seeing some respectable surge in consumption which prompted us to hire back our people but now we are in a fix. These new guidelines, which prohibits dining completely and allows only deliveries, is completely unsustainable. It is like an excruciatingly slow death for an erstwhile vibrant industry.”
