12 Apr : With a view to take stock of the various arrangements related to the augmentation of hotel accommodation coming up for the Commonwealth Games, Delhi, 2010 in the National Capital Region of Delhi, a high level meeting of the Task Force was held under the chair of Minister of Tourism, Kumari Selja, here today. All the land owning agencies viz. DDA, the Govt. of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other stakeholders viz. MCD, NDMC, Ministry of Urban Development, DJB, BSES, ITDC etc. attended the meeting.
The Minister reviewed all the new hotel projects coming up for the CWG-2010 along with the licensed Guest Houses, Bed & Breakfast establishments, DDA Housing flats located at Vasant Kunj which would be operated by ITDC. The review of the Task Force indicated 8227 rooms have been completed, which account for 75% of the overall 10981 “definite” rooms. The performance of hotel projects in respect of Haryana was found to be noteworthy as nearly 80% of the definite rooms have already been completed.
Kumari Selja stressed on the need to ensure the timely completion of the balance “definite’ rooms by DDA, Haryana and other land owning agencies and desired that all efforts may be made to complete the maximum of “likely” rooms into a “definite” category. She also requested that all the land owning agencies should also take up the upgradation and beautification of the surrounding areas and approach roads to the new hotel projects which are coming up. At the same time, it is also the prime responsibility of all the land owning agencies to grant “Completion Certificate” in a time bound manner and on a priority basis so that the hotels which are becoming operational can commence their business as soon as possible, as this will facilitate in obtaining the necessary statutory licenses by the hotels. Setting-up of a “Single Window System” for the grant of various clearances to the hotels with the land owning agencies would be a positive step in this direction.
It was also informed that the issue of clearances was critical for the hotels, as the benefits announced by the Government of the 5 year Tax Holiday would be available to 2, 3 and 4 star category hotels under sections 80-ID of the Income Tax Act, only if they started operation by 31.07.2010.
The Minister reviewed the upgradation of the DDA Flats located at Vasant Kunj and Jasola and stressed the need for DDA may strictly adhere to the completion of these plans so that they can be handed over to ITDC for furnishing as these process should be completed by 31.08.2010.
It is estimated that around 11,028 rooms would be available from the licensed Guest Houses in the NCT of Delhi. The Ministry of Tourism is providing skill development training to the owners and the staff of these identified licensed Guest Houses through the IHM, Pusa.
Beautification / upgradation of the surrounding areas to Guest Houses in Karol Bagh, and Pahar Ganj was reviewed and MCD was directed to complete all the works regarding upgradation / beautification of the identified major and internal roads, urinal blocks, rotaries, parks and signages etc. She advised that these works may be reviewed on a more regular basis to ensure that these are completed by 30.06.2010.
The Minister lauded the efforts made by the Government of Haryana towards the augmentation of additional hotel accommodation and also for identifying two sites for the setting up of tented accommodation at Suraj Kund and Dadhuhera for which high quality Swiss tented accommodation would be available for the games.
Kumari Selja desired that the “Games Travel Office” set up by the Organizing Committee; CWG-2010 may incorporate all the accommodation and travel related information on its website so that the tourists may be able to book hotel rooms, guest house accommodation, Bed & Breakfast units along with the travel related tourism packages on an early basis.
As regards the Bed & Breakfast establishments, It was informed during the meeting that presently there are a total of 1903 rooms in the NCR of Delhi (1163 rooms in Delhi and 740 rooms in the NCR ie. Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad). The Minister directed that the list of all the Bed & Breakfast establishment should be up dated on the official website of the Games Travel Office for wider publicity.
Kumari Selja while appreciating the efforts made so far, directed all the concerned agencies / departments to regularly review and monitor the creation of accommodation and the measures for upgrading the infrastructure being undertaken as the time available for the games is short and to also ensure the success of the Games, it is pertinent that all these segments of accommodation are ready and available for booking and reservation by the tourists well before the Games.
