CWG Organising Committee books more hotel rooms

NEW DELHI: The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee(OC) is in the process of booking an additional 843 rooms in hotels located close to the stadia, said a senior official of the hotel industry association.

“On September 14 , we received a letter from the ministry of tourism asking us to facilitate negotiation of rates and booking of about 843 rooms for the Games on the request of the OC,” said Rajindera Kumar, president of the Federation of Hotels and Restaurants Association(FHRAI).

This is in addition to around 1,600 rooms already booked in various hotels by the OC for delegates and technical staff. Although originally hotels in Delhi NCR were asked to block as many as 6,000 rooms for the event, the numbers were gradually reduced, according to the hotel industry body.

The request for rooms has sparked speculation in some sections of the hotel industry that the OC had realised last week that the Commonwealth village may not be in a state of preparedness to host all the delegates.

A person close to the OC on the condition of anonymity confirmed that fresh inventory of rooms are in the process of being booked but said the fresh request for hotel rooms was made after Delhi Development Authority said it could not provide the residential flats that it was suppose to for delegates. Lalit Bhanot, secretary general of the Commonwealth Games OC could not be reached for comments.

Executives at five star hotels in Delhi NCR say that bookings for October were strong but not due to demand for the Commonwealth Games. “Majority of the business that we are getting right now is the result of normal pre winter season occupancies with some rooms being booked for officials connected with the Commonwealth Games,” said Vijay Wanchoo senior vice president and General Manager the Imperial Hotel.

Hotel occupancy in the top 5-star hotels in the city are currently at 75-80%. Hoteliers fear with the traffic restrictions and other infrastructure problems, the leisure tourist might avoid coming to New Delhi during the event.