Greater Chennai Corporation starts sealing unlicensed hotels without parking lots

The Greater Chennai Corporation is sealing unlicensed hotels without parking spaces to prevent traffic congestion.

The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has started sealing unlicensed hotels that are functioning without parking spaces in the city.

Officials of the Revenue Department of the civic body are now checking whether the hotels have obtained a trade licence after getting a no objection certificate from the traffic police. The no objection certificates are issued only after parking spaces are created by the hotels.

The civic body has confirmed that 80 hotels are functioning without parking spaces. Hotels that launched after 2018 are required to create parking spaces for customers to prevent traffic congestion on roads.

K. Dhana Sekaran, Chairman of the Chennai Corporation Standing Committee (Accounts), said several hotels that failed to get licences were sealed in the city, and councillors had also advised them to create adequate parking spaces.

T.V. Shemmozhi, councillor of ward 104 in Anna Nagar, said traffic congestion was reported in the locality because of unauthorised parking by customers of the hotels that fail to provide parking spaces. During the New Year, Anna Nagar Second Avenue was blocked due to the rush, he said.

Of the 3,500 hotels in the city, the traffic police have identified 306 hotels that are functioning without obtaining a trade licence from the GCC. During the verification, officials found that several hotels had closed down. The civic body will study the reasons for closures and check whether they are continuing to operate somewhere else in the city without a trade licence.

After April, another major drive to seal unlicensed commercial establishments is set to begin in the city, officials said. As many as 575 different kinds of trades, such as hotels, are permitted by the GCC.