Hotel group welcomes Maharashtra order on licences

The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) Wednesday welcomed the Maharashtra government’s recent directive to scrap all police licences required to run hospitality businesses.

According to a police circular, now hotels, permit rooms and swimming pools within city limits will no longer require a police licence to operate a hotel establishment. With this decision, the industry is hoping for the state to take progressive steps towards ease of doing business in the coming financial year, HRAWI said in a release issued here.

“"This move goes to show that the government not only has acknowledged our woes but also is committed to eliminating them,” HRAWI president Bharat Malkani said.

“The move also goes to reaffirm that the state is clearly looking at promoting tourism. We feel positive that the following financial year will bring in a better time for hoteliers,” he added.

With the case of police licences and permissions being taken out of the way, some of the concerns of the industry has been addressed, former HRAWI president Kamlesh Barot said. “We are hopeful that in the near future single-window licence clearance will become operational,” he said.