NEW DELHI: Starting this Republic Day, Delhiites can expect a crisper, colourful night life. All restaurants and bars in five and four-star hotels, those within the airport, railway station and ISBT premises will be allowed to run on a 24X7 basis after paying a fee, officials said on Saturday.
In 3-star hotels, the restaurants and bars will be allowed to operate till 2 am and in all other categories, they will be able to operate till 1 am. Additionally, in five and four-star hotels, the ceiling of only one restaurant getting a bar licence has been lifted. This will enable such hotels to obtain separate liquor licences for more than one restaurant or bar serving liquor within the hotel premises on payment of licence fee.
Approved by Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, these decisions are aimed at ensuring ease of doing business, based on the recommendations of a committee the L-G had set up last month to ease and facilitate licence requirements for restaurants and eateries.“After the submission of the report by the committee, many meetings took place between the L-G and chief secretary, police commissioner, principal secretary (home), MCD commissioner, principal secretary (environment), DFS and others,” said a senior official.
According to the latest regulation that will come into effect by January 26, an applicant will be able to get his licence within a maximum of 49 days with a minimum human interface.According to officials, the average time for the grant of new licences was three years. “As many as 2,389 new applications for eating houses from 2022, and 2,121 applications from 2021 are pending as of now. Similarly, 359 applications for lodging houses are pending for 2022,” a senior official said.
Further, the validity of such licences by MCD, Delhi Police and Delhi Fire Service has been increased to three years instead of one year (granted in the current system). The validity period of licences obtained from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee has been increased to nine years.
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In five and four-star hotels, the ceiling of only one restaurant getting a bar licence has been lifted.
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