Hotel industry across Western India has voiced their concern against the new guidelines prescribed by the ministry of tourism, for classification of hotels. The hotels has expressed reservations against some of the criteria based on which hotels will be star rated such as designated parking facilities , so wage treatment plants, X-Ray checking machines and high percentage of skilled staff. The ministry has issued a deadline of September 1, 2010 to implement the new norms.It would not be practical for the operative hotels to have designated parking facilities and sewage treatment plat due to space constraints and hence such requirements should be applicable only to upcoming projects. Furthermore it would be impossible to adhere to the guidelines within a given time frame of one year, Suresh Talera, president, Hotel & Restaurant Association said.
The tourism ministry has emphasized on mandatory installation of x-ray checking machines in all A & B grade hotels. While hoteliers are not against security measures, small hotels would find it difficult to incorporate the changes at such a short notice. Moreover these machines need to be imported and require trained manpower to operate them. The costs of installing these x-ray machines are any where between Rs 50-60 lakh, which is not viable for one star or two star hotels, he said. Hoteliers are also unhappy with the percentage of qualified and skilled manpower required for each category. According to the new policy one and two-star should now have 20%, three and four-star and above should have 30% and five-star and above should have 60% of skilled staff. Earlier, it was 10% in one-star ,15% for two-star ,20% for three-star , 25% for four-star and 30% for five-star.
Talera, chairman has sought infrastructure and industry status for the hotel industry. Pressing for de-licensing of hotel industry he said, There are about 104 licenses required to set up a hotel in Maharastra and it takes up to two years to obtain these licenses thereby increasing the cost of the project. We will request the government to reduce unnecessary licenses and to implement a single window system so that hotels may be able to generate profits faster.
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