Govt. approves creation of 'Hospitality Development and Promotion Board'

New Delhi, Dec.30 (ANI): The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved creation of 'Hospitality Development and Promotion Board (HDPB)' for approving and facilitating of hotel projects.

The decision will facilitate the setting up of a Hospitality Development and Promotion Board at the Central level. The State Governments/UTs will be advised to set up a State level Hospitality Development and Promotion Board on similar basis.

The main function of the Board would be to monitor and facilitate the clearances/approvals of Hotel Projects both at the Central and the State Government level.

The Board would be a single point for receiving applications for various clearances; for fast track approval/clearances of hotel project proposals in a time bound manner, review hotel project policies to encourage the growth of hotel/hospitality infrastructure in the country.

The Board would review and monitor the clearances of hotel projects with the concerned Ministries/Departments/ authorities by meeting on fixed schedule basis.

The HDPB will not in any way supercede the statutory clearances of other agencies and will only act as a facilitator for the fast track hotel project approvals in a time bound manner.

The Secretary (Tourism), Government of India would be the Chairman of the Board at the Central level whereas the Chief Secretary of the State Government would be Chairman of the Board at the State level.

The board at the Central level would be set up after approval of the proposal and all the State 'UT Governments would be requested to set up similar boards

There has been a demand from the hotel industry to streamline the system for speedy clearances of hotel projects.

In order to facilitate the processing of proposals of hotel project approvals and the expeditious disposal of the same in a time bound manner by the Centre and the State/UT governments, a facilitation /clearance system at the Central and State/UT level is required.

In the meeting of the Committee of Secretaries held in March 2009, it was decided to formulate a proposal for Single Window Clearance system to be set up by Central and State Governments for setting up of hotels. (ANI)