Policy to regularise illegal banquet halls on the cards

Pradeep Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 5

Providing a relief to illegal marriage palace and banquet hall owners, the Nayab Singh Saini government has proposed a special one-time policy for their regularisation at 50 per cent of the existing development charges.

Parameters for regularisation

• The marriage palace/banquet hall should have an area of at least 1,500 sq mt
• It should be at least 100 metres away from a school, college and hospital
• It should have a maximum ground coverage of 40%
• The commercial component of the marriage palace should not exceed 10%
• The minimum parking area should not be less than 25 per cent of the site area

Under the policy, which is under active consideration of the Urban Local Bodies Department, a four-month window is proposed to be given to the owners of the illegal marriage palaces and banquet halls in the municipal limits to apply for the regularisation of their unauthorised commercial establishments.

Scores of illegal marriage palace and banquet hall owners could not get their premises regularised under the 2014 policy on account of ‘exorbitant’ development charges.

Comments and suggestions have been invited from the stakeholders till August 15 before the policy is finalised by the state.

Urban Local Bodies Minister Subhash Sudha said the policy would be finalised after incorporating suggestions from the stakeholders till August 15.

Besides 50 per cent development charges, the owners will have to shell out scrutiny fee at the rate of Rs 10 per sq mt and applicable labour cess. An extra 25 per cent development charges are proposed to be levied

for the regularisation of

the unauthorised commercial component in the marriage palaces and the banquet halls.

Saying that the size of the marriage palace should not be less than 1,500 sq mt, the policy said only those marriage palaces and banquets halls which had been constructed till December 2023 would be considered for the regularisation. These palaces should be situated at least 100 metres away from a school, college and hospital.

The policy lays down strict parameters for the regularisation such as maximum permissible ground coverage of up to 40 per cent, floor area ratio (FAR) of 0.70 and commercial component of 10 per cent of the total FAR. Besides, the minimum parking area shall not be less than 25 per cent of the site area. The basement shall be used for parking, services (public health, electricity) and storage purposes.

“If the covered area of the marriage palace/banquet hall is covered by temporary ceiling or tenting, travel distance from any point of the building/temporary structure to the exit shall be as per the National Building Code (NBC),” the policy said.

Under the existing policy, an amount of Rs 3,000 per sq mt is charged for the regularisation of marriage palaces situated on the roads with a width up to 30 metres in Gurugram. The charges for such marriage palaces situated on roads with a width of more than 30 metres are Rs 3,500 per sq mt.

The current charges for marriage palaces situated on roads with a width up to 30 metres in Panchkula and Faridabad are Rs 1,500 while for the road beyond 30 metres the charges are Rs 2,000 per sq mt.

The charges for Sonepat, Sohna, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Bahadurgarh, Hisar, Rohtak, Rewari, Ganaur, Palwal, Hodal and Rewari are Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,200 for these two categories. For other areas, the charges range from Rs 600 to Rs 800 per sq mt.