If a proposal submitted by the excise department is accepted, well over 3,000 bars and permit rooms in the Mumbai-Thane belt will be allowed to remain open till 3am. A senior official from the department said that the hotel industry had been pressing for this for a long time.
“It has been proposed to extend the existing deadline for serving liquor from 11.30pm to 3am,” said a senior bureaucrat on Monday. “A comprehensive proposal has been submitted to the labour department, whose consent will be required since bars and permit rooms are covered under the Shops and Establishments Act. We are also awaiting the opinion of the home department. In the event of an affirmative decision being taken, we will ensure that there are no legal hurdles in the process.”
At present, while permit rooms and bars are allowed to serve liquor up to 11.30pm, coffee shops attached to star hotels have no such restrictions. “The managements of star hotels now want this to be extended to all the bars and restaurants in their hotels, not just coffee shops,” said the bureaucrat.
While conceding that the proposal would definitely be opposed by the home department as well as all sections of society, the official said that one could not ignore the fact that Mumbai was an international city and there was nothing illegal or wrong in allowing bars and permit rooms to operate beyond midnight.
