Bengaluru, Jul 5 (IANS): India's Silicon valley opened up malls and bars on Monday, after being shut due to the onslaught of the Covid second wave.

Managements have taken a cautious approach to welcome customers to malls by ensuring all possible precautionary measures, including vaccination of frontline staff, retailers, and vendors.

The managements of the malls are also planning to throw up surprises for customers. Manoj Singh, Cluster Director, Nexus Malls said, "Going a step further, for all the customers who have been vaccinated and would be visiting our Koramangala, Shantiniketan and Neighbourhood Malls, we would also be gratifying them with surprises.

"Besides that, we are ensuring sanitization of our premises at regular intervals. Special care has been taken to ensure that the prominent touch-points are sanitized more frequently and retail partners have sanitisers available at the store entrances as well," he explained.

At the entrances, malls have also set up automated mechanisms, which can tell exactly how many people are within the premises, in real-time.

Suprita, who earlier frequented the malls regularly on weekends, said she couldn't stop herself from visiting them and she is planning to visit on the first day itself.

Govindaraj Hegde, General Secretary for Federation of Wine Merchants Association welcoming the decision said, during the first wave of Covid, wine merchants suffered the loss of Rs 1,100 crore in the state and this time since the parcel counters remain open, it has to be seen how much loss is being incurred.

The bar industry supports two lakh people directly and indirectly including groceries, hotels, etc. "We will insist with the government on the usual timing of operations," he said.