Chandigarh hoteliers put up spirited fight against highway liquor ban

After partially making its way around the liquor ban that the Supreme Court has imposed on hotels and restaurants located within 500m of highways, Chandigarh is now facing the ire of the owners and employees of over 90 such establishments who are staring at staggering financial losses due to the SC order.

Hundreds of members of the Chandigarh Hotel and Restaurant Association gathered in the city’s centre on Monday in protest against the ban, while demanding that the main roads connecting the city be denotified as state highways.

Unlike other cities, the internal main roads dividing Chandigarh vertically were notified as state highways in 2005 in order to seek maintenance funds from the Centre. But following the apex court’s order, a majority of the hotels and restaurants in one of country’s first planned cities have come under the purview of the ban, since most of them are located on the main roads that are state highways. This includes some high-end hotels.

The administration had earlier tried to dodge the ban by denotifying the V1, V2 and V3 roads, which are also categorised as state highways, but the NGO Arrive Safe challenged the move in the Supreme Court. The ban has virtually shut down the business of these establishments, which are facing the repercussions of the 2005 notification.

Highlighting that the order is bound to have a disastrous impact on the hospitality industry, Arvinder Pal Singh, president, Chandigarh Hotel and Restaurant Association, pegged the expected financial losses at Rs 20 crore per month.

“All the hotels and restaurants that are located along Madhya Marg and the city’s internal roads have been affected. The first weekend after the ban was imposed saw a loss of over Rs 3 crore. That apart, 5,000 of our employees would be affected as the establishments have been compelled to reduce manpower by half,” he said.

Some cheer soon?

A day after hoteliers raised the issue of the SC order banning the sale of liquor within 500m of national and state highways with Union Minister of Tourism and Culture Mahesh Sharma, he said, “We will now explore legal options to see if a middle ground can be reached.”