New Year: Liquor worth Rs 125 Cr sold in Telangana; 3000 drunken driving cases booked

Hyderabad: Liquor sales hit Rs.125 crore on the eve of New Year in Telangana.

In the last four days of 2023, liquor worth Rs 750 crore was sold in the State.

According to the Telangana State Beverages Corporation (TSBC), liquor worth Rs. 135 crore to Rs. 150 was sold on the last day of 2023.

Liquor worth Rs.133 crore was sold on December 28. On December 29, the sales zoomed to Rs.179 crore. On December 30, the figure touched Rs.313 crore.

According to excise officials, on December 31, 1.30 lakh cartons of liquor and 1.35 lakh cartons of beer were sold from 19 government depots.

3000 drunk and drive cases:

A total of 3,001 people were booked for drunken driving as part of the special drive launched during New Year under three police commissionerates covering Hyderabad city and the suburbs, police said.

The drive was conducted from 8 pm on December 31, 2023, to morning on January 1 to prevent road accidents and other untoward incidents, police said.

While 1,243 people were caught and booked for drunk driving under the Hyderabad police commissionerate, 1,241 cases were booked under the Cyberabad police commissionerate and 517 cases were registered under the Rachakonda police commissionerate, police said.

All of them will be produced before a court in due course of time after filing chargesheets, police said.

Over 4.8 lakh biryanis ordered on Swiggy:

Over 4.8 lakh biryanis were ordered on Swiggy on New Year's eve with a peak of 1,244 units ordered every minute, sources employed with the food delivery platform said. While close to one in every four biryani orders were placed in Hyderabad, Swiggy Instamart -- the platform for ordering groceries and home essentials -- did 1.6x more orders per minute in comparison to the previous record high witnessed during the 2023 Cricket World Cup final on November 19.

By the evening, both Swiggy's food delivery and Instamart services surpassed the highs of the previous year, sources said.

Swiggy delivered 3.50 lakh biryani orders and dispatched over 2.5 lakh pizzas across the country last year in the same period.

"New Year's eve '24 broke all records across Swiggy Food and Instamart! With the team at the stroke of midnight - could not be happier," Rohit Kapoor, CEO of Food Marketplace, Swiggy, said.

"Almost a million users were active on the Swiggy app in the last hour. That's more than the number of people who will join the gym starting tomorrow," the app said in a post on 'X' at 9.50 PM on Sunday. Over a million people ordered food for others this year, it said.

Swiggy Instamart in a separate post on Sunday said orders for condoms peaked at 1,722 condoms per hour in the morning.