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Hotels, luxury resorts offer quarantine deals in West Bengal
Star hotels and luxury resorts in Kolkata, other towns and tourist destinations in the state are offering their rooms as Covid-19 quarantine facilities to those reluctant to complete their government-mandated isolation in state-run centres.
Asked by the government to go into quarantine and not keen to do so in a state-run facility? By paying between ₹1800 and ₹7000 a night, people can now isolate themselves at hotels and luxury resorts across West Bengal.
Star hotels and luxury resorts in Kolkata, other towns and tourist destinations in the state are offering their rooms as Covid-19 quarantine facilities to those reluctant to complete their government-mandated isolation in state-run centres.
The costliest hotel, charging ₹7000 a night without GST, is located near NSCBI airport in Kolkata. Luxury resorts in popular tourist destinations such as Muktumanipur in Bankura district are also offering their rooms.
“Apartment from the usual facilities such as satellite TV, wi-fi connection and coffee maker, our quarantined guests can use our gym one by one. The gym is sanitised after one uses it and then another person is allowed in,” said Rahul Saxena, general manager of a four-star hotel at Siliguri in north Bengal that charges ₹4,500 without GST for a room.
“They are not allowed to use the swimming pool though. There are recreational facilities, such as carrom and table tennis. One can also sing using karaoke for entertainment,” he said.
The cheaper and budget hotels, whose tariffs start from ₹1800 a night, will serve vegetarian fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner. One has to pay ₹100 more to get non-vegetarian food.
Sudesh Poddar, honorary secretary of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Eastern India, said the organisation has provided the state government a list of hotels in Kolkata, Siliguri and Durgapur with around 750 rooms that can be used for quarantine.
“We will add more hotels and rooms in various other towns in almost all the districts of West Bengal,” he said.
The idea is to create a pool of private quarantine facilities that can be used by people on a “pay and use” basis. The idea was lauded by chief minister Mamata Banerjee at a recent meeting with industry associations.
Poddar said: “All one needs to do is to choose from the list of hotels once he or she is asked to stay in institutional quarantine by the state government. The hotel will allot the room on arrival but the person has to show the letter of the state government.”
West Bengal has around 580 institutional quarantine centres, where more than 11,000 people are currently under observation.
