The Times of India  11.08.2010

KOLKATA: Kolkata Municipal Corporation(KMC) has finally cracked the whip on the Oberoi Grand for grabbing a lane of the busy J L Nehru Road for close to two years.

In a letter to the hotel on Tuesday, the civic authorities asked its management to stop encroaching on the lane immediately. This apart, the Oberoi Grand has been asked to pay Rs 1.5 lakh as charges for encroachment since December 2008. No fine, however, was slapped on the hotel for illegal encroachment. The Oberoi Grand had barricaded a lane on J L Nehru Road to beef up security at the entrance to the hotel following the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.

KMC woke up to the encroachment and started the process of levying charges on the heritage hotel after TOI carried a report on this, citing examples of how the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had levied charges on penalised two premier hotels for encroaching on roads for reasons of security.

The letter sent to the Grand by the principal chief engineer of the KMC solid waste management department has asked the estate manager of the hotel to ensure that encroachments are removed immediately and the charges paid as per civic norms. According to the KMC act, the solid waste management may levy charges on any institution for using part of the city's roads or pavements for a brief period. However, prior permission has to be sought for such temporary encroachment.

The solid waste management department had calculated the charges and penalty payable by Grand a month ago and placed it before mayor Sovan Chatterjee. The mayor bought time, consulted legal experts before giving his nod on Saturday.

Debabrata Majumder, the mayor-in-council member overseeing the KMC solid waste management department, said that under no circumstances would the civic body allow encroachment. "We can't allow them to take up a whole lane and inconvenience motorists on such a busy thoroughfare," the MMiC said. A senior Grand official said on Tuesday that he was yet to receive any letter from KMC.