Express News Service By

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ( KERALA ): Out of the 418 bars remaining closed since April 2014, around 150 will reopen as beer and wine parlours on Monday.

The inspections have already been conducted and the Excise authorities have issued beer and wine parlour licences to around 100 closed bars, while nearly 50 new licences will be issued by Monday morning.

According to sources, the beer and wine parlours need to take fresh stock from the Kerala State Beverages Corporation and hence they could resume functioning by noon.

In Thiruvananthapuram, already 17 beer and wine parlours have been issued licences, whereas in Kochi and Kollam, over 20 were issued licences.

More applications for beer and wine parlours were received by the corporation which can be issued only after inspection by Excise team to ensure hygiene of the facilities.

“The inspection regarding hygiene and cleanliness has almost been completed. It would be carried out in the remaining few bars in a couple of days,” said additional excise commissioner (enforcement) K Radhakrishnan.

Hence, it could take a couple of days more to issue licences to all the 418 bars.

The corporation supplies around 40 types of beer and over 50 types of wine, including bottles and tins of various capacities of the same brands.

However, the stock at the time of closing the bars in March 2014 will continue to remain sealed by the Excise officials. A major chunk of the stock in most of sealed bars was already transferred to other functioning bars with government permission. The old stock of beer cannot be used anymore as the shelf life of beer is six months.