Government revises norms for approval of hotel projects, classification

The ministry of tourism has revised the classification norms of hotel projects in order to make them friendlier for the differently abled persons by adopting the international best practices.

Existing and new hotels of all categories all over the country would now have to comply with the requirements for the differently abled persons in respect of accessibility, special rooms with bathrooms and facilities etc in the public area by 1 September 2010, an official release said.

Under the revised norms, depending on the star category, hotels are now required to have metal detectors, CCTVs, X-ray machines and under belly scanners to screen vehicles. They have also to verify staff and suppliers of food and beverage outlets (restaurants) in the hotel.

For this purpose, the minimum number and type of restaurants / food and beverage (F&B) service has been allocated depending on the location of the hotel in the country based on a system of Grade A and Grade B cities.

The Grade A cities would comprise of major metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad/ Secunderabad and Delhi. (Delhi would include the hotels falling in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, NOIDA and Greater NOIDA). Grade B cities would comprise all other cities not covered in Grade A. Hotels located in Grade A cities would require to offer more types of cuisine / number of F&B outlets compared to Grade B cities. Hotels located in Grade B cities would not be required to offer the same number of F&B outlets as that of Grade A due to the lesser demand.

With a view to provide high standards of service, it has been made mandatory for hotels to have minimum percentage of trained supervisory and skilled staff possessing degree / diploma / skilled training certificate from central / state institute of hotel management / Food Craft Institute or from National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology (NCHMCT) affiliated IHM or from other reputed hospitality schools etc.

The ministry said in formulating the guidelines, it has taken into consideration the changing requirements of international and domestic travellers as also the emerging safety and security consciousness in view of the recent incidents in the country.

These guidelines have been finalised after several rounds of interaction and with inputs from the hotel industry and the related stakeholders, the release said.