NRAI calls for single-window system

The National Restaurant Association of India has urged Maharashtra Tourism Minister to create single-window licensing as well as bring down rentals so that not just restaurants, but tourism in the state may also benefit.

Giving due recognition to the restaurant and food services industry, Jaykumar Jitendrasinh Rawal, Minister of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, said, “When tourists visit any place, they need restaurants and entertainment venues where they can be comfortable, unwind and enjoy the food. Of course, we have lovely restaurants in Mumbai. But at the same time, we are going to ensure that the issues that they face are sorted at the government level quickly. We are also thinking of having designated zones where restaurants can remain open late into the night. We are currently looking at the security aspects and once we okay it, we can go ahead with the plan.”

He was present at the launch of the India Food Services Report 2016 brought out by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). Speaking at the launch, Riyaaz Amlani, President, NRAI, said, “Some of the facts and figures that have emerged from this report are interesting. The food services business is the second largest services segment after retail. We are one of the highest employment generators in the country. We are bigger than telecom, the railways, and eight times the size of hotel industry. We want to tell the government that they need to support us, and create better working conditions for us.” Underlining the two sore points that have been troubling restaurateurs in the state, Amlani says, “There are a lot of challenges we are facing from manpower, expensive real estate, to a myriad of regulations and licenses that we need to face daily. Unfortunately, we do not fall under one ministry so our appeal to the Honorable State Tourism Minister is to actually take the restaurants under his ministry and create an empowered inter-ministerial group to reduce the licenses and harassment that is faced by restaurants on a daily basis. We have requested him to create a single-window system. We are hoping that the government will make more real estate available to restaurants as well as bring down the rentals in Mumbai as it is very high.”