by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 5:38 PM ET, Mon August 28, 2017
A liquor ban that had been impacting hotels, resorts and bars throughout India has been eased by the country's highest court.
The ban, which prohibited the sale of alcohol within a third of a mile from a highway, took effect in April and was aimed at limiting drunk driving, according to Bloomberg.
After a five-month decline in business for some of the country's liquor and hospitality companies, the Supreme Court partially lifted the ban last week.
Now, even if a business is near a highway, it will be allowed to sell alcohol, according to the court's order.
"The ban has a domino effect beyond direct alcohol sales," Ankur Bhatia, executive director of Bird Group, owner of the luxury Roseate Hotel, told Bloomberg. The court-order led to lost sales for the company of about 10 million rupees ($156,170) a month.
The company has since had to invest in marketing and public relations to let customers know alcoholic drinks are back on sale.
"People tend to think, 'They don't serve alcohol there, I won't even go there,"' Bhatia said.
[READMORE]READ MORE:India Starts Handing Out Free SIM Cards To Tourists[/READMORE]
The hospitality industry was shocked when the ban was initially announced, the Huffington Post reported. It impacted hundreds of bars, restaurants, and hotels in cities and states across India.
Some restaurants and bars were ultimately forced to close their doors amid the decline of customers after the ban took place.
In the city of Pune, southeast of Mumbai, as many as 80 percent of the bars in the city were forced to close, according to Bloomberg.
Struggling to survive after the ban was enacted, some businesses came up with incredibly creative workarounds. For instance, a tavern near Kochi, in the southern state of Kerala, spent millions of rupees constructing a maze-like entrance to increase the distance patrons would travel from the highway.
Meanwhile, restaurants in Pune and New Delhi closed their front doors and redirected customers to enter through back entrances that were further away from the highway
Although India's per-capita alcohol consumption is among the lowest in the world, according to Bloomberg, those who do drink tend to drink quite heavily.
About 21 percent of people who suffered brain injuries in accidents in India were under the influence of alcohol, and 90 percent of them consumed liquor within three hours prior to the crash, according to a study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bengaluru.
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