BMC to tighten hygiene noose on star hotels, Grade I restaurants

To tighten the noose of cleanliness and hygiene on Grade I restaurants and star hotels, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will use a 'random sampling method' for inspection.

From now on, the civic body's health department will choose the hotels and restaurants for inspection by lottery. This new system has been introduced after municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta has to make routine checking of eateries stringent and more transparent.

According to civic officials, health officers from all 24 administrative wards in the city would hold the lottery on every Saturday. The names of star hotels and Grade I restaurants that appear would be inspected for cleanliness and hygiene by civic officials during the next week. The whole procedure will be kept a secret.

However, for the normal restaurants and hotels, the civic body will follow the old procedure of inspection. There are a total of 1,729 star hotels and Grade I restaurants in the city, of which 50 are Class one and 1,679 are star hotels.

Under the 394 provision of Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, the civic body issues health licenses to hotels and restaurants. Normally, civic officials conduct inspections of such hotels and restaurants every three months.

A senior civic official from BMC said: "The inspection report of star hotels and Class one restaurants will be submitted to the executive health officer. If they were found to be violating rules, then notice will be issued against them by the local ward officer."