Mumbai News

Mumbai moves towards business as usual after 3rd wave – Times of India

MUMBAI: Maximum City has emerged from the third wave and is slowly moving towards business as usual. Two weeks after key restrictions were lifted, commuters are back on the roads and trains, restaurants are attracting larger crowds and office attendance and air traffic is picking up.
The number of commuters on the Central Railway has increased by 8 lakhs and those on the Western Railway have increased by 7 lakh over the last two weeks. The daily ridership on BEST buses which had dropped by 5 lakh in January, was restored by February 14. The ridership went up from 23 lakh to over 28 lakh, said BEST general manager Lokesh Chandra. In crowded markets and commercial hubs, share taxis are back in full swing.
Attendance at government headquarters Mantralaya is now 100% though visitors are limited and have to be fully vaccinated. However, while corporates have opened offices, large companies have allowed employees the flexibility of working remotely. Firms are not entirely throwing caution to the wind, with many preferring to operate at under 50% capacity.
After closing its offices in January, KPMG, which has a total strength of roughly 5,000 employees in Mumbai across its four offices, opened its offices on Monday. Arjun Vaidyanathan, COO, KPMG in India, said the firm saw attendance of 8-10% across its offices in Mumbai.
The RPG Group had also totally shut its offices. S. Venkatesh, Group president – HR, RPG Group, said: “With the decline in the wave, from 9th February 2022, we have re-opened our Mumbai and NCR offices on a totally voluntary basis (for employees) with a cap of 25% attendance. For other locations, a decision will be taken to open offices, keeping in mind local Covid conditions and restrictions.”
Tata Sons, which has its headquarters in South Mumbai, has been following the government norm of allowing unto 50% employees in the office. Marico’s CHRO Amit Prakash said, “We have restarted the hybrid work system for our partners and managers on a roster basis from the first week of February.” But some companies have resumed work much like in the pre-pandemic days. Motilal Oswal Financial Services said it is back to full capacity now.
Restaurants and bars are filling up though they are only allowed 50% capacity and are still far from regaining pre-covid business levels
“Since timings have been restored, we have been able to register 70% business clocked during pre-pandemic times. Two weeks of business is hardly anything to nullify the kind of cumulative losses suffered over a period of 2 years because of frequent lockdowns and restricted timings,” said Shivanand Shetty, President, Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association.
Meanwhile, domestic passenger traffic at Mumbai airport has almost doubled compared to last month. For instance, on January 16, a Sunday, the Mumbai airport handled a total of 38,600 domestic passengers, according to data shared by Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) Four weeks down the line, on February 13, another Sunday, domestic passenger traffic jumped to 68,500, a 77 % increase.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-moves-towards-business-as-usual-after-3rd-wave/articleshow/89577666.cms