City budget hotels offer rooms, with drinks on the side
Though big hotels have closed their bars in Delhi following last week’s Supreme Court order banning the sale of liquor within 500 metres of state and national highways, the smaller ones are cashing in on the situation.
Many budget hotels in Mahipalpur falling along national highway 8 are offering rooms for guests, negating the court’s order meant to curb drunk driving. These hotels do not even have licences to serve liquor.
When HT visited the area on Tuesday, seven out of 15 hotels on one lane of Mahipalpur agreed to serve liquor in the rooms even though they did not have the licence to do so.
A hotel staff, who did not want to be named, said that their hotel, which is in Mahipalpur, is getting several inquiries from people wanting to be served liquor inside the rooms as bars along NH-8 have been closed.
“We got at least 50 people over the past one week who came enquiring whether we will serve liquor,” he said.
The staff at another hotel, which was about 50 metres from the national highway, said they were even ready to offer rooms for an hour or two and serve liquor. However, the customer will have to pay the full day tariff.
The big hotels such as Radisson Blue and Pullman have, however, stopped serving liquor.
Dinesh Khanna, president of Mahipalpur Hotel association said, “If this kind of thing is being done, it is illegal. The hotels cannot serve liquor inside rooms. If they are caught, their licence will be cancelled.”
There are about 125 budget hotels in Mahipalpur with 80% of them having around 30 rooms and about 10 licences to serve liquor, he said. They charge between ₹1,000 and ₹2,000 per day.
There are around 15 hotels in Aerocity, most of which are big hotels, with star ratings.
Khanna, however, said he does the rule does not make much sense as people who want to drink will cross 500 metres to buy alcohol or carry it from their homes.
“The hotel industry is already facing losses and if this is promoted it will hamper the tourism business,” he said.