Centre gives NOC to use Nainital's Hotel Metropole campus as parking space

Dehradun, Oct 14 (PTI) The Centre has permitted temporary use of an open space at the dilapidated Metropole Hotel Complex, Nainital for parking in a bid to ease traffic in the tourist town.
     Permission for it has been given on a temporary and ad hoc basis in the larger public interest, officials here said on Monday.
     Lack of parking space in the tourist town leads to long and frequent traffic jams, especially during peak tourist season in the summer.
     Encroachments on the hotel campus were removed after years of litigation last year following a Supreme Court order.
     The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has granted the NOC to the Uttarakhand government for surface parking on the open space at Metropole Hotel Complex at Mallital in Nainital.
     Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had written to the ministry seeking its permission for using the open space at the hotel complex as a parking lot.
     Built by the British in 1880 and owned subsequently at the time of the country's Independence by the Raja of Mahmudabad, the Metropole Hotel Complex was declared enemy property in the 1960s after its owner migrated to Pakistan after partition.
     Closed for years now, the hotel has a glorious past with many celebrities staying here in its heyday.
     Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah stayed at the hotel for his honeymoon in 1919.
     According to the state government's policy, 90 per cent of the rental income received from the lease of the parking space will be sent to the Custodian of Enemy Property (CEPI), which will become a part of the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI).
     The home ministry has directed that representatives of the MHA and the CEPI will be compulsorily present in the bidding process for surface parking.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)