Hotels and restaurants of the coal capital of Dhanbad are busy cleaning up to reopen on Monday after more than five months, but owners said they would appeal to the authorities to allow them to serve guests till 9pm instead of the mandated 7pm.

Restaurant owners are planning to meet office-bearers of Federation of Dhanbad Zila Chamber of Commerce and Industry to ask them to convey their concerns to the district administration.

Senior GM of Skylark Hotel Anutosh Baghchi said deep cleaning of the entire premises was on since Sunday which would be followed by pest control measures and sanitisation.

“As per SOP for operation, we have decided to avoid human interface and once a guest enters his/her respective suites, our staff will not enter their rooms. Food will be served in rooms using sanitised trolleys and guests will have to serve themselves.

“We will also carry out the thermal scanning of all guests before booking rooms for them,” Bagchi said and added that no one would be allowed in without masks. The hotel restaurant that seats 80 will, however, allow only 40 people at a time.

Tables being cleaned at a restaurant in Dhanbad on Sunday. Gautam Dey

Arka Ghosh, who is GM of Hotel Sonotel that has 56 rooms and three suites, said they had also started sanitisation measures on the premises. “We will use thermal scanners and also note down the travel history of guests. We will also follow all the SOPs for restaurants,” he said.

Satwant Singh, owner of La Piaza, a restaurant in Hirapur, Dhanbad, said he was happy that the government had allowed restaurants to open, but was sceptical about the volume of business. “Until the staying open time is extended to 9pm we will not see customers as office-goers will not get time to visit us,” he said.

Mihir Mandal, owner of Monalisa, another restaurant in Dhanbad, expressed similar worries, “We are also planning to meet office-bearers of the Federation of Dhanbad Zila Chamber of Commerce to demand an extension in timing.”