Mumbai civic body proposes to waive ₹9 crore payable by Hotel Taj Mahal Palace

Hotel Taj Mahal Palace has occupied around 800 square metres (sqm) of public road and over 1,100 sqm of footpath for which over ₹10.18 crore is payable. HT sent an email and tried calling the hotel’s spokesperson for a comment, but there was no response.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed to waive over ₹9 crore payable by Hotel Taj Mahal Palace to the civic body for using the public road outside the hotel and barricading parts of the footpath outside the luxury hotel citing security requirement.

HT sent an email and tried calling the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace’s spokesperson for a comment, but there was no response . (HT FILE)

Hotel Taj Mahal Palace near Gateway of India in Colaba has barricaded a certain portion of the road and footpath outside its premises citing security reasons after the 26/11 terrorist attacks in 2008. The Mumbai Police has acknowledged the security requirement for which the road and footpath are required to be barricaded.

According to BMC’s proposal for waiver that is set to be tabled in the upcoming standing committee on Wednesday, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace has occupied around 800 square metres (sqm) of public road and over 1,100 sqm of footpath for which over ₹10.18 crore is payable.

Of the ₹10.18 crore, BMC has proposed to waive around ₹8.85 crore for occupation of footpath in complete as requested by Hotel Taj Mahal Palace citing that the exercise was being undertaken for security reasons and not for commercial purposes. For the remaining ₹1.33 crore, BMC has proposed to give 50% waiver to Taj Mahal Palace.

But the Congress, which is in the Opposition, opposed the proposal. Congress corporator and Opposition leader Ravi Raja said, “BMC does not give any relief to the common man, and it should not give waiver to the five-star hotel. In the past, BMC denied giving concession or waiver to Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for using bollards and blocking access on advice of security agencies. I will oppose it.”

HT sent an email and tried calling the hotel’s spokesperson for a comment, but there was no response till the time of going to print.