Cheers! Ban on liquor in hotels, shops within city limits lifted

Hotels located on Anna Salai, Guindy and ECR/OMR stretch were affected most by the decision. Those living close to the highways had to travel far to other shops and bootleggers made a killing by demanding higher than the usual rates. 

Hailing the SC ruling, Anuj Kumar, a resident of Sholingnallur, said, “I am eagerly waiting for the TASMAC near my house to reopen as every weekend, I end up travelling a couple of kilometres to get hold of alcohol. When we want to go out, we have to come to the city pubs to wine and dine.” 

Another hotel owner on ECR said, “We had to face heavy loss as the number of customers had been drastically reduced since April.”

Members of Tamil Nadu Tipplers Welfare Association in Coimbatore were out on streets bursting crackers and celebrating this decision. State president of the association P Chellapandian said, “We welcome the court’s verdict. Around 6,700 TASMAC outlets are already closed and around 1,700 outlets are likely to open soon. Alcohol became expensive in areas around the highway that didn’t come under the purview of the ban.” 

However, star hotels in the city are awaiting an official statement from the government. “We in Tamil Nadu are waiting for the Commissioner of P&E to seek legal opinion from the Government Pleader and permit us to open the bars soon,’ a spokesperson of a star hotel in Guindy said. 

M Ravi, President of the Tamil Nadu Hotels Association, said, “The hotel industry would have suffered a loss of approximately Rs 700-800 crore since the ban was implemented. Many top hotels were affected by this. We welcome the Supreme Court’s judgment as the National Highways are different from state highways. We are now waiting orders from Tamil Nadu government to start selling alcohol again.”