Pollution control body might give more time to Lalit

The hotel is to install a sewage treatment plant

The Lalit Hotel group and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) don’t seem to have found common ground nearly a week after the regulatory body issued a closure notice to the hotel.

While chairman and managing director of the group, Jyotsna Suri, said the hotel has got a six-month extension from DPCC to install the sewage treatment plant, the pollution control body denied any such move on its part.

A senior DPCC official told Business Standard Lalit has written to the regulatory body seeking extension to implement the environment-friendly requirements but its application is still being assessed. “We are yet to decide upon the regulatory issues they need to comply with. There is no extension yet,” said a senior official.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of its Great Eastern hotel launch in Kolkata, Suri had said: “No closure notice was served with an immediate effect to the hotel. DPCC wanted certain things to be done and we have done most of it.” Suri added the Delhi property was “operating graciously and shall continue to do so”.

The first notice from DPCC was issued on December 20, 2012.

Even after so many inspections, the required facilities — effluent treatment plant, rainwater harvesting facility and sewage facilities — were not in place or in proper order according to the guidelines. DPCC held an inspection of the property in September, following which the company was asked to rectify the deficiencies.