The State prohibition authority, functioning under the Department of Home, is learnt to have initiated the process to give permission to 40 new liquor shops in dry Gujarat.
At present 58 permit shops are functioning across different cities of Gujarat which are selling alcohol to permit holders and those visiting Gujarat from outside the state. With new permissions to be granted to open more liquor shops, the total number of permit shops would almost touch 100 in the near future.
Sources in the state prohibition authority informed that in the past five years as many as 68 applications were received. “We are in the process to issue notification regarding the new permit shops. Of these 40 new shops, 19 will be given permission soon,” said a senior official.
It is worth mentioning that till 2014, there were only 26 official liquor shops in the state, but within the span of just three years the number increased to more than double and now it would be almost four fold by the end of 2018.
In the case of Gujarat’s commercial capital Ahmedabad there were only five such shops till 2014, but now the liquor shops have increased to eleven.