: Al fresco dining in Connaught Place may soon become a thing of the past, with the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) cracking down on restaurants, bars and cafés for using terraces to serve customers.
On February 3, the NDMC sealed the rooftops of 21 restaurants in Connaught Place, including Warehouse Cafe, Open House Cafe, Teddy Boy, The Vault, Barbeque Nation, Farzi Cafe, Lord of the Drinks, Unplugged Courtyard and Kinbuck 2, citing violation of rules. As per the NDMC, the rooftops of commercial buildings are meant for fire-fighting arrangements and are not supposed to be used for commercial activity.
The sealing spree came in the wake of a building collapse on February 2. A part of a building in C-Block, above Jain Book Agency, caved in, leading the NDMC to blame the additional load on the roof in the form of generator sets and water tanks for the incident. However, this was not the first time the NDMC acted against use of terraces. In 2015, the civic body sealed the roofs of 13 restaurants, after which they signed affidavits saying they would adhere to rules.
‘Terraces not in use’
Even now, the restaurant owners maintained that they were not violating the norms.
“Our terraces were not in use. The building collapse has nothing to do with the NDMC’s actions. They are trying to curtail the crowd coming to Connaught Place before they roll out the pedestrianisation plan,” said Priyank Sukhija, the owner of Warehouse and Open House cafes, referring to the NDMC’s proposal to ban vehicles in CP later this month.
Mr. Sukhija added that the restaurants had been paying very high rates of property tax meant for commercial properties, which included the roof area. He said the restaurant owners were willing to provide structural safety certificates to the NDMC to assuage any concerns on that front.
Attempt to divide and rule
Vikram Badhwar, honorary secretary of the New Delhi Traders’ Association, said the sealing was an “attempt to divide and rule”.
“The NDMC wants to create divisions amongst the restaurant owners, traders, shopkeepers of Palika Bazaar and other categories of businesses. This is to pressure us, so that our united stand against pedestrianisation breaks,” said Mr. Badhwar.
NDMC officials, however, denied this. A senior official said that the restaurants had been given several notices to stop using the terraces illegally and had not heeded the warnings. While the NDMC started taking action against the restaurants serving diners on terraces in 2015, the rooftop dining spaces have existed for years.
