PUNE: A cloud kitchen that came up in the Kausarbaug area when the lockdown was relaxed in the city in October last year took only three months to function as a full-fledged restaurant. Barely four months since January, the restaurant is up for sale. “We had taken a risk and invested Rs 13 lakh on the restaurant. But the second wave and restrictions have completely shattered the business. We don’t have a choice but to sell or rent it out. Though the administration has allowed delivery of food at customers’ doorstep, we are just not making enough money to pay our staff,” one of the partners told TOI requesting anonymity. Around 20% of restaurants and cafeterias, both big and small, in the city are not expected to open the shutters again because of the restrictions in place since April, the Pune Restaurants and Hoteliers Association stated. Association president Ganesh Shetty told TOI that of the around 3,400 restaurants and cafeterias in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits and 400 in Pimpri Chinchwad, only 5% could pull off home deliveries. “We want two things — to allow proper take-away and parcel services on all days, including weekends, and allow the restaurants to open up at their 50% capacity from June. Around 700 eateries in Pune city and around 100 in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation limits are not expected to open again ever because of the restrictions in place since April 3. Also alarming is that just 5% of the eateries are into proper home deliveries, while the rest are not able to carry it out,” Shetty said. A majority of eatery owners said they were not earning any profits despite the home deliveries. “Not too many people are ordering food and our earning is going towards maintaining infrastructure and paying LPG and electricity bills and staffers’ salaries. Profit is zero at this point of time,” a café owner, whose outlet is near the Sadhu Vasvani Chowk, told TOI. The manager of a Kondhwa-based restaurant specializing in South Indian food said people were not coming in for takeaways. “Around 95% of the business is now only through food delivery applications. People need a proper reason to be out on the streets after 11am. Police are stopping them everywhere. On Saturday and Sundays, business shrinks even more. We are keeping our fingers crossed for some relaxation in the restrictions from June,” he said. In 2020, Shetty said, around 10% of eateries had shut down permanently. “Of the 4,500 eateries, 10% did not open up after the lockdown last year. Some more continued shutting down operations even during relaxations. Another major concern is many of the restaurant staffers left for their hometowns because of the restrictions in the past three months,” he said.
Pune: Hit by pandemic, 20% of restos may never reopen
