Kolkata To Shut All Hookah Bars

The licence of any bar will also be cancelled if they are found secretly selling hookah, he said.

"There are allegations of illegal drug use at the hookah bars. The young generation is getting addicted to drugs. And, this is why hookah bars have been ordered to close," he said.

Welcoming the decision of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, doctors said having hookah for an hour was equivalent to consuming 100 cigarettes in terms of nicotine deposits.

"At the hookah bars, which are located inside restaurants, a lot of passive smoking also happens. It is harmful to health as one hour of hookah is equivalent to consuming 100 cigarettes," said doctor Bikash Majumder, senior consultant interventional cardiologist at Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals.?