Pubs, hotels try to circumvent liquor ban
NO BOOZE CyberHub, Ambience Mall tweak routes to avoid ban; officials to verify claims as more establishments say they do not fall within 500 metres of highways
The fate of a large number of bars, pubs and luxury hotels in Gurgaon that have been affected by the Supreme Court’s liquor ban will be decided from Wednesday onwards.
The excise department will start the process to measure whether the distance between state and national highways and liquor vends, which have challenged the list prepared by Haryana excise department, is 500 metres or not.
On Supreme Court order, liquor vends within 500 metres of national and state highways have been shut down .
Excise department officials said that vends which have claimed that they are out of the banned zone will undergo measurement first.
However, to circumvent the ban, developers in Gurgaon are making changes to entries and exits of their properties; making motorable distance more than 500 metres and moving these establishments out of the purview of the order.
This could however be in violation of the sanctioned plans and maps approved by the department of town and country planning. But insiders say that the developers are ready to take the risk as there is no other way for them to avoid the ban.
Ambience Mall, which is bang on the national highway, has a number of restaurants and bars that serve liquor, including the luxury Leela Hotel. The developer has closed the u-turn taken by commuters to enter the Leela Ambience Hotel from entry no 22 to beat the ban.
Visitors will now have to drive in front of the Ambience Lagoon residential complex before entering the hotel. But this has hit the entry to the Ambience Lagoon apartments and invited the ire of the residents.
“Fast moving luxury cars and commercial traffic is now moving in front of our complex. Children and elders can’t go out on the road,” said Sanjay Lal, member of the Residents Welfare Association.
Liquor sales at bars and pubs in CyberHub and Ambience Mall are major crowd pullers and generate huge revenue for these properties. In fact, the ban has proved a major dampener for the industry and some restaurant owners said that sales which were in lakhs daily have come down to a few thousand rupees.
The bar/pub owners in Sector 29 also want HUDA to block the entry to one of the roads so that the motorable distance can be increased. “We have invested crores in setting up these facilities. The government should now help us,” said a bar owner, preferring anonymity.
Similarly, the entrance to Cyber Hub near the Rapid Metro station next to Shankar Chowk has been tweaked in such a manner that visitors will have to drive around a kilometre, take the u-turn from the newly built underpass, to ensure that the motorable distance is more than a kilometre from NH8.
More than 150 bars and pubs in Gurgaon have been hit by the Supreme Court ban.
Gurgaon deputy commissioner Hardeep Singh said that both the committees constituted to implement the Supreme Court order will start work from Wednesday.
“The measurement of the motorable distance will start as per the directions of the apex court,” said Singh.
A senior excise official also said that motorable distance would be measured as per the master plan, and any alterations would not be taken into account.