Pubs and bars around Bengaluru....

In seven days, pubs and bars around Bengaluru MG Road will have to stop serving alcohol

The Karnataka government and the BBMP seem to have been in a slumber following the Supreme Court’s ban on bars and pubs alongside state and National Highways. The administration has now finally woken up to the fact that nearly 200 such establishments – in a radius of 500m around MG Road – will have to stop serving alcohol within a week.

As many as 138 pubs and restaurants in Bengaluru’s central business district – MG Road, Brigade Road and Church Street – serve alcohol.

A senior BBMP official, on condition of anonymity, told TNM that even today, according to record books, the road starting from Basaveswara Circle via Raj Bhavan to MG Road till Old Madras Road is a national highway and these records have not been updated since the 1990s and neither has the state government tried to rectify this.

“MG Road should have been denotifed as a National Highway decades ago but it has not yet been done. Now, with only a week’s time left, there is a lot of pressure from bar owners on the state government,” the senior official added.

Bengaluru Development Minister, KJ George, however, seemed confident that the government could convince the Centre to denotify MG Road as a national highway.

“We will convince the Centre not to consider them as highways before July 1,” the Minister said.

The Wine Merchants’ Association and Pub Owners’ Association, however, said that if the government does not get the stretch denotified, they will carry out massive protests and also file a writ petition with the Supreme Court in this regard.