Bailey Road fire ruins appetite for dining out

The Mughal Empire restaurant in Mohammadpur of Dhaka wore a quiet look at 7:30pm Monday, normally a peak time. With only four people at one corner eating biryani, it is a stark contrast to the usual gathering of 25-30 people.

The sense of unease was palpable in the restaurant, as the recent fire incident in the city's Bailey Road has put a dampener on restaurant businesses.

It came after at least 46 people were killed in one of the major fire incidents in Bangladesh in recent times on Thursday.

"It appears that fear has gripped customers after the fire," said Md Nuruzzaman, manager of Mughal Empire, adding that business has been negatively affected.

"Due to this, our sales have slumped around 30 percent."

He said 400 to 450 customers come to his restaurant every day. After the Bailey Road incident, now 200 to 250 are coming.

Before Thursday, people from Mohammadpur and its surrounding areas used to come to eat at the restaurant. Now, only customers from Mohammadpur are coming.

Mughal Empire is not the sole restaurant that has seen a drastic fall in customers and sales.

For example, officials of Taj Kitchen, a rooftop restaurant in the same neighbourhood, said their business dropped by 30 percent after the Bailey Road incident.

Dhaka has about 25,000 small and large restaurants and hundreds of those have sprouted in the past one decade to cater to the growing demand for hygienic food and the quest for dining out among the relatively better-off city-dwellers.

The latest blow comes at a time when restaurants have been struggling to ward off the impacts of persisting inflation, which surged to a 12-year high in 2022-23, a trend that has continued into the ongoing financial year.

Amid record inflationary pressures, the profit margin in the restaurant business has narrowed considerably.

Currently, there are 4.81 lakh restaurants in Bangladesh, employing 30 lakh people. Overall, two crore people are dependent on the sector, directly and indirectly, according to the Bangladesh Restaurant Owners' Association (BROA).

Mohammad Abdur Razzak, manager of Taj Kitchen, said they had been running the restaurant business since 2019, but customers had never enquired about fire safety.

"But after the Bailey Road incident, customers who came to eat asked whether we are complying with fire safety standards. Customers are now more concerned about safety. That's a positive development."

He claimed that Taj Kitchen has been operating the business by following rules since the beginning.

Customers also have expressed worries.

One of them is Khandaker Robin, a resident of Dhaka. He used to eat out three to four days a week, but after Thursday's fire, fear has gripped him.

"My family has also started to enquire about when I am out of the house."

Since the blaze, various organisations and people from all walks of life have been calling on the government to ensure fire safety at restaurants.

Government agencies, including police, are raiding restaurant buildings in various parts of the capital.

Police arrested 21 people, including restaurant owners and employees, after carrying out raids at restaurants in Gulshan, Dhanmondi and Wari on March 3 and filed six cases against them allegedly for breaching rules.

Officials of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), which enforces compliance related to building codes, raided the Gawsia Twin Peak building on Dhanmondi's Satmasjid Road on March 4 and closed 12 restaurants.

The Dhaka South City Corporation shut another building on the same road. On the same day, Dhaka Metropolitan Police raided a number of restaurants in Wari and detained 16 staff members.

Yesterday, a team from the Rajuk closed Nababi Bhoj restaurant for operating without proper permission and imposed a fine of Tk 1 lakh on Swiss Bakery for lack of fire safety measures. Both firms are located on Bailey Road.

During a visit to Sky Lounge in Mirpur-1 around 10pm on Monday, only two customers were seen there having dinner on the fifth floor.

"In normal days, there had always been a crowd of customers at this time of the day. But because of the fire incident and police raids, the number of customers has fallen," said Rafiqul Islam, the restaurant supervisor.

During a visit to the Manhattan Fish Market, a restaurant, in the Jhigatola on Monday evening, only five customers could be found against a seating capacity of 60 people.

An employee said since customers' presence is thin, they have prepared accordingly. "A lower amount of food is being cooked."

According to Mughal Empire's Nuruzzaman, there are many regular costs to run a restaurant. "Under the circumstances, the entire loss is now being borne by the owner."

"We are worried about the current situation. If the situation lasts, it will be tough to keep the business alive."

Imran Hassan, secretary general of the BROA, said many restaurants are losing business.

He alleged that there is a conspiracy against the restaurant industry centred on the Bailey Road fire.

The way raids are being carried out and owners and employees are being arrested, it might not bring the much-need solution the country needs, he said.

"Closing restaurants will not be a fruitful outcome. Rather, it will hurt the sector and many will be unemployed."

Hassan called for holding talks to resolve the issue.