GANDHINAGAR: With daily Covid-19 cases registering a constant decline, the state government announced more relaxations in commercial activities from June 11, Friday.
The new guidelines will remain in force from June 11 to June 26 in 36 cities of Gujarat, including Ahmedabad and other municipal corporations.
Gymnasiums will finally be allowed to reopen from Friday and restaurants will be allowed to have dine-in customers.
Gyms had been shut down when cases were soaring in the second wave and restaurants were not allowed dine-in customers.
Parks and gardens will open after a long spell of closure and social, political and religious gatherings will be allowed with limited numbers.
However, there will be no relaxation in night curfew in all 36 cities and towns.
Night curfew will be imposed from 9pm to 6am in all 36 cities, the government said.
All shops, commercial establishments, vendors with handcarts, shopping complexes, market yards, hair cutting saloons, beauty parlours and other commercial activities will be able to remain open for an additional hour from Friday.
Instead of closing at 6pm, these establishments can now remain open until 7pm.
In the interest of students who want to pursue higher studies abroad, examinations like IELTS, TOEFL, etc can be conducted from June 11 with strict adherence to standard operating protocol (SOP) from June 11.
Narendra Somani, president of the Gujarat chapter of the Hotels and Restaurants’ Association, said, “Resuming dine-in services in the day will help revive our order volumes which were greatly reduced, as were revenues.
The restaurant industry is in a tumultuous period, because we are unable to meet operating costs.
Allowing food deliveries till midnight and dine-in operations in the day will sure help us recoup our costs.” Gym owners also breathed a sigh of relief on being allowed to resume after over two months.
“Meeting overheads was becoming impossible and several gyms in Ahmedabad were forced to close because they could not pay rent,” said the owner of a gym in Prahladnagar.
“Orders and inquiries have begun to pour in and the further extension by an hour will help ahead of the festival season during the Shravana month,” said Kirit Patel, president of Panchkuwa Mahajan.