Commonwealth Games in Delhi - A Fiasco in Making!

The Capital, New Delhi, is gearing up for the Commonwealth Games, which will see at least a million extra tourists in India, and with a large portion of them expected to hit Delhi, the city's 11,000 hotel rooms are woefully inadequate.

In fact the Ministry of Tourism estimates that Delhi needs another 40,000 hotel rooms just to handle the Commonwealth Games, but include the rest of India and the figure is scary.

“We are short of 1,50,000 rooms in the deluxe category and 1,00,000 in the budget category,” Tourism Minister Ambika Soni said.

Meanwhile, Government agencies like the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) are hard at work identifying sites to cope with the large number of visitors.

“The DDA auctioned 33 plots for the construction of hotels in the NCR since January 2006, which is said to add 6,500 rooms,” Director PR, DDA, Neemo Dhar said. That said, due to the recession many of the companies tat had bought the land - have handed it back to the Govt. saying that the soaring cost of land makes constructing a Hotels in Delhi uneconomical.

But attempts to auction the sites have been partially successful, forcing the DDA to issue tenders. But in spite of that some plots remain unsold, and many have been handed back to the Govt.

And with the Commonwealth Games only a year away, finishing a world-class hotel will mean working against the clock because that normally requires three years. The high cost of land is also likely to lead to high tariffs.

In spite of the Tourism Ministry's incentives like a 10-year tax rebate on budget hotels, the 40,000 target seems an unlikely one. Perhaps the answer lies in facilitating smaller establishments.

Estimates say 30 per cent of the deficit can be bridged through unbranded categories like serviced apartments, Delhi Bnb and guesthouses and motels in Delhi.