The hospitality sector has started limping back towards normalcy after the recent relaxations provided by the state government in terms of permission for opening restaurants and food outlets during the weekends and also operational time limit increased to 10 pm from 8 pm during weekdays.

The occupancy rate at the majority of the 200 hotels of Dhanbad has increased to around 50 per cent to 60 per cent while the restaurant business has also improved to around 50%.

Talking to The Telegraph Online on Wednesday, Anutosh Bagchi, senior general manager of Skylark hotel said, “The restaurants, bars and banquets are the important outlets of hotel without which the full steam operation of hotels can’t be imagined and yes indeed the recent relaxations have increased the confidence of the guests for weekday stay although the weekend stay is yet to improve due closure of offices during weekends.”

“Our guest occupancy has increased to 40 per cent for the total 37 rooms and restaurant operation rule relaxation has played a crucial role as a result of which we have now reached the break even position where we are successfully managing all the overhead expenses including the staff salary, GST, electricity charges,” said Bagchi and added that he is hopeful they will start earning profit if the situation improves.

Arka Ghosh, General Manager of Hotel Sonotel, said,“The eating out culture has started reviving following the relaxations as a result of which we are witnessing increase in booking of all tables in our restaurant and even some guests keep waiting as per the norms we the operating the restaurants with 50 per cent seating capacity.”

“The restaurant rule relaxations have also led to the increase in room occupancy as we are witnessing more than 65 per cent occupancy during the weekdays,” said Ghosh and added that they are expecting the situation to improve further.

Satnam Singh, owner of La Piaza restaurant in Dhanbad who is also the president of Dhanbad Restaurant owners association said,“Yes indeed the customer flow has increased following relaxation in norms but we are still far behind the normal situation as out of bookings of 15-16 tables per day of the pre lockdown period we are getting 7-8 table bookings per day at present.”

“Apprehension about Covid-19 is still persisting among the customers working as a deterrent against the full revival of restaurant dining culture but with the passage of time we are expecting the situation to improve,” said Singh.