BMC Order On Opening of Shops During Lockdown In Capital City; Details Here

Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation on Tuesday cleared the air over what category of shops are allowed to remain  during the extended lockdown period in the capital city.

The BMC’s clarification order comes after the state government in  its June 30 order, prohibited opening of shopping malls during the lockdown period. However, later some business establishments have requested for opening of their shop/shopping complex as they claimed that they are not coming under Shopping Mall Category.

The BMC clarification issued today states the following:

a. A shopping complex/shop business establishment whose area is less than 25,000 square feet will be allowed to open.

b. The calculation of area will be considered as follows: whose total area taking into consideration all floors (in case of multi-storeyed building) will be treated as one unit. Opening of part of the shop and claiming it to be less than 25,000 square feet will not be considered.

c. In case a shopping complex has office complex and its total space is more than 25,000 square feet, including office space, then only shopping complex area will be taken into calculation for total area.

d. The shopping complex/shops/business establishments shall have to adhere to strict COVID norms and particularly social distancing protocol during the business hours.

The number of customers allowed is maximum 25 at any point of time, that too if there is sufficient space available for them for maintaining social distancing of 6 feet among the customers.