300 PG hostels to face closure, 7,500 to be hit in Noida

Getting tough on paying guest (PG) accommodation owners, the Noida authority has ordered them to shut operations before the sealing of commercial establishments begins in early March. Saurabh Trivedi reports.

Getting tough on paying guest (PG) accommodation owners, the Noida authority has ordered them to shut operations before the sealing of commercial establishments begins in early March.

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The move is expected to affect more than 7,500 professionals and students as 300 PG hostels in 20 sectors across Noida will face closure.

"Relocating in a short span of time of 15 days is impossible. My PG owner has directed me to vacate the place by the end of this month. We don't know how and where to go," said Prashant Kumar, an IT professional.

Since Noida has hundreds of IT and BPO units, besides a large number of management and technical institutions, the PG business has grown far and wide. On an average, a PG hostel charges Rs 6,000 per bed. In posh sectors, the rates, however, are even higher.

The Noida authority has asked RWAs to conduct a survey of the commercial establishments operating in their sectors. This is being done after complaints that the authority's list of commercial establishments in residential areas had missed many units.

"We are strictly following the Supreme Court orders by getting a survey done by RWAs to make our sealing drive error-free. We want to identify unmarked commercial units. We have also directed RWAs to issue notices to such unauthorised units to move out within the given deadline or else the landlords will lose their plots," said authority's chief executive officer SK Dwivedi.

President of Sector 53 RWA Santosh Gupta said, "We have submitted a survey report. Our list of commercial units is bigger than the one prepared by the authority. We have located eight more units, including seven PG hostels. We have told them to move out."