Theatres, parks reopen in Tamil Nadu

Zoological and botanical parks and boathouses have been permitted to reopen for the public from today. The Nilgiris Department officials said popular tourist spots including Ooty Boat House, Sims Park in Coonoor and museums have been reopened for the public.

In Chennai, the Arignar Anna Zoological Park, which hit the headlines recently after lions tested positive and a couple of them succumbed to Covid-19, has not reopened today for the public. The park’s Deputy Director, Naga Sathish, said they haven’t received the official order from the government and they will, probably, open on Wednesday.

As far as theatres are concerned, only a few of them have reopened. For the past two days, theatre owners were busy ensuring that all guidelines issued by the government were being followed including disinfecting seats and ensuring 100 per cent vaccination of staff.

Theatres were shut down in March 2020 following the outbreak of the pandemic and were later reopened after seven months in November with a 50 per cent cap on seating. Due to the second wave of the pandemic, they were again closed in April 2021.

Speaking to Indianexpress.com, actor and producer Chitra Lakshmanan said around 400 stand-alone theatres have been reopened today and all other multiplexes will be open for the public by Thursday or Friday as they are yet to finalise the movie scheduling. He further added that all the theatre owners have given an undertaking to the government that all theatres would be computerized within December 2021 in a bid to be more transparent about ticketing costs. A dedicated server is likely to be set up in regards to this.

Veteran distributor and Tamil Nadu Theatres owners association leader Tiruppur Subramaniam had said that the ticket prices won’t be increased in theatres owing to the pandemic.