The Indian Coffee House outlets on College Street and Jadavpur will remain closed for more than a week because of the coronavirus scare, the Indian Coffee Workers Co-operative Society Ltd decided on Friday.

This was the first time in 24 years, since 1994, that the coffee house would remain closed.

A large section of the clientele of the Indian Coffee House comprises students of schools, colleges and universities. With the government suspending classes till April 15, daily footfall has gone down drastically. A general tendency to remain indoors to stay safe from the virus has added to the declining footfall.

A notice issued by the management on Friday evening said the “Indian Coffee House… will remain closed from 21.03.2020 to 31.03.2020 due to coronavirus.” The situation will be reviewed later and the course of action will be decided, the notice added.

“On a weekday evening, I can never imagine serving only 50-odd customers. Such is the situation for the past few days,” said Tapan Pahari, the secretary of the society.

On an average day, about 1,500 people would visit the coffee house outlet on College Street between 9am and 9pm.

However, since Monday, the footfall has gone down to 300 to 500 a day. “Since there are fewer customers, the workers are asking whether we can close early. I’ve never faced this question in my career spanning 26 years,” Pahari said.

Altogether, 65 people work in the two outlets of coffee house. The workers are mostly from East Midnapore, Odisha and Bihar. There will be no pay-cut for the shutdown, the management has decided.

Though the closure will have a financial impact on the business, it might as well be a respite since the management will not have to incur the establishment cost.

“There is no point in keeping the outlets open when what we earn will be lesser than the bills we will have to pay,” another source in the management said.

A veteran coffee house worker, Radhakanta Mishra, who has been working at the iconic College Street café for over 40 years couldn’t remember having faced a similar situation. The only time the café was closed for around 28 days was in 1994, when the workers had called for a boycott over an issue of price rise.

“I love the buzz of this place and I will miss it. But given the current situation, I think closing ourselves for the time being is the right thing to do,” he said.

“Coffee house is the go-to place for us old friends to meet up. If it remains closed, I will feel truly quarantined,” said Nabhonil Basu, a photographer and coffee house regular. “However, I think there is no other option at the moment,” he added.