Restaurateur Nitin Kothari could not recall another instance of an election-related liquor ban lasting more than eight days in his 52 years in the business.

“I can’t think of such a prolonged ban on alcohol sales,” said Kothari, 79, owner of the famed bars-cum-restaurants Mocambo and Peter Cat and the busy new Peter Hu? off Park Street.

Bars, clubs, restaurants, hotels and off-shops had been bracing for the usual 48-hour alcohol curb leading into polling day. A single notice from the Bengal excise commissioner and subsequent orders from the city police commissioner and district authorities have extended the period to 198 hours in Calcutta and many other south Bengal districts.

Bar and off-shop owners said the long ban could translate into a loss of about ₹600 crore to the exchequer, considering the average annual excise revenue is around ₹23,000 crore in Bengal, according to government estimates.

Late April is a good time for business because of Poila Boishakh and other regional new-year celebrations. Many pubs and clubs have a series of private parties lined upduring this period. They are now being cancelled or tweaked.

“We have at least seven parties lined up in these 10 days. We have to cancel them now,” said Amit Bajoria, owner of the franchises of Lord ofthe Drinks and Warehouse Cafe.

“Some clients want refunds, some others are ready to postpone. But business will be hurt very badly.”

The alcohol section of online aggregators’ apps went blank on Monday.

Sources said the Election Commission had communicated the need to extend the curbs to the excise commissioner, who then issued the formal notice.

Some bars and off-shops received the communication on Monday morning and did not open at all. But many did, before a prod from the excise department forced them to shut down.

“We had opened the shop. Around 1pm, we received a call from an excise official who informed us about the notice. The shop was shut by 1.15pm,” the owner of an off-shop in Kasba said.

A bar in Bhowanipore too had opened before a similar prod led to a closure around 1.30pm.

The impact will be acute on an estimated 2.8 lakh people employed in the industry, involved in a wide variety of jobs, from manufacturing and packaging bottles toserving guests in the bars. For a significant section of these workers, no work meansno pay.

Many industry insiders that this newspaper spoke to were fuming at the “bizarre” order.

“Darjeeling votes on April 23. How can a bar in Calcutta induce voters in Darjeeling on April 23?” an alcohol distributor said.

A tour of the city on Monday afternoon showed that notices had been pasted on all retail establishments that sell or serve alcohol.

“Bar is closed” was written on a notice pasted on an off-shop on Theatre Road. “Dry day”, proclaimed Trincas in Park Street.

Social clubs sent notices to their members. The city’s popular bars-cum-restaurants looked deserted on Monday evening.