Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria clears proposal to allow restaurants, bars, pubs to serve all night; F&B industry loving it.The Mumbai police’s sanction was the most important hurdle the proposal had to cross because law and order has been cited routinely by governments of all hues to impose tough curfew hours on Mumbai’s once buzzing nightlife.While the city boasted of the country’s most vibrant night life for many decades, the riots of 1992 changed everything and ‘last order, sir’ became a line that the party-goers began dreading. Currently, restaurants accept their last orders at midnight, while the deadline for pubs and bars is 1 am.This is all, however, set to change now. Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya said that the government has been discussing various steps to turn Mumbai into a financial/entertainment hub. “Demands were made by some people to allow allnight restaurants and bars. If Rakesh Maria has cleared the proposal, the state will consider it positively,” he said.An officer from the Urban Development Department on the condition of anonymity said the police’s no-objection-certificate was the most important piece of document for allowing Mumbai to remain open all night. “We had left it to the police commissioner to take a call. It’s good to have restaurants open through the night, but we have to see to it that there is no law and order problem,” he said.The idea of an open-all-night Mumbai was first floated by Yuva Sena president Aditya Thackeray last year. Since Yuva Sena’s parent party, the Shiv Sena, rules the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the proposal got quickly cleared there. However, it ran into resistance in Mantralaya, which was then controlled by the rival Congress-NCP government.With the BJP-Sena government ruling the state now, the proposal is likely to be expedited. The new government’s focus on promoting businesses, in fact, dovetails nicely with the city’s need for an exciting afterwork life.While pushing for more liberal deadlines for eateries, Aditya had argued why Mumbai, which calls itself the financial capital of the country, can’t have nightlife like New York and London. He had pointed out that even Indore has some markets open till early morning.According to the proposal cleared by Maria, bars, restaurants and pubs in a residential area like Lokhandwala in Andheri will continue to adhere to the curfew hours, while their counterparts on Linking Road or Colaba Causeway will enjoy the liberty of fixing their own closing hour. Similarly, areas like Carter Road, Pali Hill, and Bandstand are not covered under the new proposal.Sunny Sara, the director of famous night club LIV and restaurant Cheval, said: “I would love to give Rakesh Maria a hug as he has made this possible. We must understand that nightlife boosts tourism and enhances business. For the past 15 years, we have been fighting to make this proposal work. And now, when I was thinking of giving up, this change has come. It is a positive move and will put Mumbai’s nightlife back on track.”Farhan Azmi, who represents the National Restaurants Association of India, and owns Koyla restaurants in Colaba and Andheri said it is the right step to save Mumbai’s threatened nightlife.