Under-construction illegal hotel demolished in Amritsar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 26

Continuing with its drive against illegal constructions, the Municipal Town Planning (MTP) wing on Friday took action against an illegal under-construction multi-storey hotel building in the Town Hall area.

Municipal Town Planner Mehrban Singh, Assistant Town Planners (ATPs) Arun Khanna, Wazir Raj and Harjinder Singh, Building Inspectors Nirmaljit Verma, Rohini, Manish Kumar, Kulwinder Kaur, Angad Singh, and demolition staff and police personnel reached an illegal hotel building near Bhrawan Da Dhaba around 7 in the morning. The action continued till afternoon in which, demolition staff of the MC demolished walls, ceilings and shuttering on each floor. The shuttering of the upper two floors was removed. The municipal corporation’s team used ditch machines, drill machines and hammers to demolish the hotel.

The owner of the building had illegally constructed two basements and 10 floors in this congested area. It was not the only illegal construction in the Town Hall area as hundreds of other illegal constructions were completed in the last few years and hotels are now functional in such buildings.

The construction of this multi-storey hotel adjoining the old head office of the Municipal Corporation at Town Hall has been under construction for the last two years. The owner of the property built a double basement and a 10-storey building without the approval of the MC.

Despite the ban on the construction in the walled city, the MC allowed the hotel owner to construct the building for the last two years. Officials of the MC claimed that they had stopped the construction of this building but the building owner used to restart the work by violating the guidelines.

More than 500 illegal hotels have been constructed around the Golden Temple despite a ban on the construction by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Illegal multi-storied hotels are functional in three feet narrow streets where no fire safety measures can be adopted in case of fire incident. Most of these hotels don’t have parking lots. The MC takes action once a while in the year which seems to be mere eyewash.