Some restaurants and other commercial units in the high-end Khan Market in south Delhi have been asked by the NDMC to pay conversion charges by the month-end or face sealing action.
Notices have been sent to over 30 units in the market which were running in residential premises but were carrying out commercial activities, officials said.
They have been asked to pay the necessary charges for conversion of the properties to commercial ones by January 30 or face sealing.
When Khan Market was set up in the 1950s, commercial establishments came up on ground floors and the upper ones were kept for residential use. However, after a monitoring committee gave permission for conversion, a number of eateries and other shops have come up on upper floors, some of which were yet to pay the necessary charges.
The civic agency had earlier sealed several shops in nearby Sujan Singh Park for misuse of property.
Khan Market Traders Association Representative Sanjeev Mehra said notices have come to some traders. “Commercial activity was earlier not permissible. Now that it has been allowed, the traders also definitely have the responsibility to pay the conversion charges. If people are using the residential premises for commercial purposes, they should pay the charges that are our view.”
Traders claimed that the one-time conversion charge will come to around Rs 25 lakh per establishment.
The posh market is the costliest retail high street in the country and its ranking in the global retail high street is 21, according to a survey by global real estate consultancy firm Cushman and Wakefield last year. Khan Market saw a rise of over 15 per cent in rentals in 2010.
