A monitoring committee on Tuesday found all prominent hotels and bars along the National Highway-8 in the Millennium City to be located well outside the 500 metre buffer zone fixed by the Supreme Court to ban the sale of liquor. However, none of these bars and hotels have been given a clean chit as of now and the final decision would be made in a meeting of the monitoring committee expected later this week.
The committee — set up by the Haryana Government to ensure implementation of the Supreme Court order — took up the measurement for Country Inn and Suites, The Trident, The Oberoi, The Leela, Ambience Mall, Cyber Hub, Westin and Crowne Plaza. While over 10 bars are operating from Ambience Mall, there are around 35 bars in CyberHub, a favoured hotspots in the city.
‘Fate in the balance’
“All hotels and bars taken up for measurement today [on Tuesday] have been found to be outside the 500-metre limit fixed by the Supreme Court. The final decision will be taken by the monitoring committee meeting later this week, considering the master plans and other issues,” said Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (West) H.C. Dahiya, who is also a member of the monitoring committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner.
Though most of these bars and hotels might escape the axe, the sources in the committee said that the fate of the three prominent hotels — The Oberoi,
The Trident and The Leela — still hangs in the balance because of certain legal issues.
Not willing to be identified, a panel member said that both The Trident and The Oberoi had closed their entries on the main road and given an undertaking not to use them, but an approval was still awaited from the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) in this regard.
Single entry, exit
“The managements of the hotels told the committee that they had already applied to the HSIIDC seeking approval for it. But it is unlikely the HSIIDC would approve a single entry and exit for two big hotels. If the approval is denied, both hotels will fall within 500-metres as their main entry gates are under 200 metres from the edge of the service road,” said the source. The hotels have opened the staff entry gate for the guests.
Diversions affected
The source added that the U-turn to The Leela is disputed and the panel would seek the opinion of the Department of Town and Country Planning in this regard. For all the hotels, the panel has measured the motorable distance till the drop and pick-up point inside the premises.
As for the Cyber Hub, a senior Excise and Taxation Department official said several diversions were earlier affected due to the widening of the DLF-HUDA Road, but the road was nearing completion and as per the new route, the complex was around 1,800 metres from the edge of the service road.
“The bar owners at the Cyber Hub have furnished the master plan and the final decision would be taken at the panel meeting,” the official said.
In the case of the bars inside the Ambience Mall, the panel has measured the distance from the edge of the highway to the entrance of the bars inside the mall. “Since the licence to serve liqour has been granted to the bars and not the mall, the panel decided to measure the distance till the entrance of the respective bars. We have measured the distance from Gate No. 1 and Gate No. 4, but in both cases it is above 500 metres,” said a committee member.