Seeking to pep up the somewhat dampened mood of the people of the country’s commercial capital on the eve of the New Year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday evening sent out an unusual but a welcome message to Mumbaikars: “Don’t Stop The Party, Mumbai - Just Take It Indoors After 11:00!”.
Amid a “night curfew” triggered by a new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 detected in the United Kingdom, the BMC tweaked the rules a bit to permit restaurants to home deliver food in the metropolis after 11 pm.
No wonder, a tweet put out by the BMC on its official handle: “Don’t Stop The Party, Mumbai — Just Take It Indoors After 11:00! Restaurants are allowed to home deliver food in the city post 11:00pm” came as a pleasant surprise for Mumbaikars.
However, the BMC came out with a rider in the same tweet: “Covid-prevention norms will have to be followed to ensure Mumbai rings in the new year with safety”, a condition that the Mumbaikars — reconciled as they are to the challenging Covid-19 times they are passing through – did not mind.
Known all along as “a city that never sleeps”, Mumbai and its people will for the first time will be ushering in New Year without celebrations in restaurants and at public places.
The tweaking of the “Night Curfew” rules by the BMC came ten days after the Maharashtra government on Monday announced the imposition of a “night curfew” from 11 pm to 6 am between December 22 and January 5 in the metropolis and other Municipal Corporation areas in the state, in the wake of the detection of a new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom. Even the BMC had last week announced the ban on all celebrations after 11 pm at all places, including building terraces.
More than a week ago, the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) had exhorted its member-hotels and restaurants in Mumbai and other major cities across the state to gear up for early New Year’s eve celebrations coinciding with “Thailand Time”.
The hotels and restaurants in Mumbai and Municipal Corporation areas in Maharashtra — as per the advice by HRAWI — will ring in the New Year as early as at 10.30 pm on December 31 which is 12 midnight as per "Thailand Time". In effect, the hotels and restaurants will usher in the year 2021 one-hand-a half hour early.
However, State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh displayed a bit of leniency when he said on Wednesday: “As part of efforts to ensure against the spread of Covid-19, hotels, restaurants, bars and pubs will shut down at 11 pm. However, if Mumbaikars want to visit friends and family members for early morning dinner or go to markets, they can do so, but there is restriction on the assembly of five or more persons at public places”.
Notwithstanding the minor tweaking of “night curfew”, Mumbai will not be the same on the eve of the New Year. In normal times, hundreds and thousands people would converge on beaches, gardens or waterfronts and public places like the Gateway of India, Marine Lines, Girgaum and Juhu Chowpatty.
Given to partying and revelry on the New year eve, a large number of Mumbaikars have gone out of the metropolis to nearby get-away places including hill stations, far-away beach towns, farmhouses, jungle and other tourist destinations where there are no Covid-219 restrictions to ring in 2021.
